It’s beginning to look a lot less like Christmas at the DWP

Bah Humbug hat and the DWP logo


Support us and go ad-free

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appears to have read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Because its latest policy shift, just in time to ruin millions of people’s Christmases, is straight out of the Scrooge playbook.

DWP: the miser’s touch

Many DWP claimants usually get a £10 Christmas ‘bonus’ from it. You get this if you are in receipt of various benefits, including:

  • Carer’s Allowance.
  • Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
  • Severe Disablement Allowance.

But this year, people claiming Universal Credit who may have previously got those benefits will be getting a big, fat bonus of nothing from the DWP. Because it doesn’t give it out under its contentious new benefit.

But…! But…!

As i News reported:

The Christmas Bonus is a one-off, tax-free £10 payment made to people on certain benefits in the first week of December. It is designed to help those receiving benefits to cover the extra costs of Christmas…

But the one-off December payment is not made to people on Universal Credit

The DWP told i News:

Related articles

Read on...

Universal Credit claimants have never received a one-off December payment, but many disabled people on Universal Credit will be better off on average by £100 month than when they received ESA [Employment and Support Allowance].

That’s not really the point – as people on ESA never got the Christmas bonus anyway. Moreover, Universal Credit is still leaving some disabled people up to £300 a month worse off. So the DWP swiping yet more money from them is just another kick in the teeth.

Scrooging Grinchers

Twitter reacted accordingly to the DWP ‘Grinching’ all over Christmas 2018:

It’s unclear just how much lower the DWP can sink. But it probably can. So watch out in 2019 for it sanctioning claimants for having the audacity to celebrate Christmas at all.

Featured image via Mike Licht – Flickr and UK government – Wikimedia 

We know everyone is suffering under the Tories - but the Canary is a vital weapon in our fight back, and we need your support

The Canary Workers’ Co-op knows life is hard. The Tories are waging a class war against us we’re all having to fight. But like trade unions and community organising, truly independent working-class media is a vital weapon in our armoury.

The Canary doesn’t have the budget of the corporate media. In fact, our income is over 1,000 times less than the Guardian’s. What we do have is a radical agenda that disrupts power and amplifies marginalised communities. But we can only do this with our readers’ support.

So please, help us continue to spread messages of resistance and hope. Even the smallest donation would mean the world to us.

Support us

Related articles