People set for five DWP payments worth £2,267 to cope with 'cruel winter'

UK households face a “cruel winter” amid rising energy prices and a reduction in benefits - but they can gain help through five schemes. The Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) has five benefits and payments households can take advantage of.

Rachael Maskell, the Labour MP for York Central, said: “There is real concern about the levels of poverty in communities like York. People can’t afford to get through the week, and without the additional protection of things like the household support fund, I don’t know how some people are going to get through the winter.

“The regulation to end universal winter fuel payments will be brought in by September 16. That is no time to prepare for what could be a cruel winter for very vulnerable people. I commend the government for trying to get us out of this financial black hole, but we have an immediate crisis before us … We should not accept anyone dying in 2024 because their homes are cold.”

READ MORE Met Office and BBC Weather have say over 33C September heatwave hitting UK

Universal Credit - £617

The amount of Universal Credit (UC) a household receives in the UK depends on several factors, including age, household composition, and whether housing support is included:

The standard allowance for a household is based on the age of the claimants: Single claimant under 25: £311.68 per month, Single claimant aged 25 or over: £393.45 per month, Joint claimants both under 25: £489.23 per month and Joint claimants either aged 25 or over: £617.60 per month.

Carer’s allowance - £300

The analyst group Policy in Practice estimates 529,000 carers who were eligible to claim the £81.90 a week benefit did not do so last year, collectively losing out on more than £2bn. There are nearly 6 million unpaid carers in the UK, and about 1 million claim carer’s allowance. About four in 10 unpaid carers are in poverty.

Tamara Sandoul, the head of policy at Carers UK, said there were various reasons why unpaid carers may be wary of claiming carer’s allowance. “It could be down to the earnings limit and people having variable earnings which may put some people off claiming,” she said. “It is a relatively low benefit and the risk of running up overpayments may not be worth it for some people even if they may be eligible for the benefit some of the time.”

As of April 2024, Carer's Allowance in the UK is £81.90 per week, or £4,258 per year. This welfare benefit is paid directly into a bank account, building society, or credit union account, and can be paid weekly or once a month.

Household support fund - £550

English councils last year spent £370m from their household support fund (HSF) allocations on holiday food vouchers for pupils on free school meals (FSM) – but more than a quarter of authorities say this support could disappear if the fund is ditched.

“If HSF ends, with no long-term strategy to replace it, it will instantly plunge millions into more financial turmoil. The effects of poverty, deprivation and even malnutrition will be exacerbated and the additional costs to public services will be huge,” a report by the charity End Furniture Poverty report concludes.

Some local authorities are paying out £550.

Personal independence payment - £800

As of May 2024, the maximum monthly Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is £798.63 .The amount a person receives depends on their score on the PIP test for daily living and mobility. The benefit is split into two parts: daily living and mobility, and people can receive payments for both components.

Personal Independence Payment (PIP) is now worth £434.20 every four weeks at the higher daily living rate and £290.60 every four weeks at the lower rate. You could also get £303.00 every four weeks at the higher mobility rate and £114.80 at the lower rate.

Unclaimed benefits

There is an estimated £23bn a year in unclaimed benefits. The Department for Work and Pensions disputed Policy in Practice’s figures, saying precise estimates of carer’s allowance take-up rates are difficult to make because of the complexity of the eligibility criteria.

Deven Ghelani, the director of Policy in Practice, said the government needed to do more to simplify benefits, automatically alert claimants to other benefits they are eligible for, and challenge public and media attitudes that stigmatise the claiming of benefits as “scrounging.”

He said there was a “strong argument” for reform of carer’s allowance to make it less complicated and allow more flexibility around paid work to ensure unpaid carers who wanted to stay in the labour market were not put off from claiming.

The report says: “Given its complexity, it is little surprise to find more than 500,000 low-paid, full-time carers are missing out on more than £2.2bn in financial support each year. And yet informal carers save the British economy £162bn a year in care costs, a saving equivalent to the annual cost of NHS services in England and Wales.”