Do people on legacy benefits miss out again on help?

It would seem unless you are on UC or pension credit. You may well missed from that payment. No mention of income support or other legacy benefits.

What happened to the unpaid carers?

Right now they haven’t given enough information, which suggests that they haven’t worked out the fine detail, bearing in mind the money won’t appear until October. The disability ones will come direct through the PIP and AA, possibly DLA payments. But the details aren’t out yet other than they say those on “means tested” benefits will get the £650. The pensioner money will come through their Retirement Pensions, almost certainly.

The most vulnerable will be payed through pension credit and/or UC. There are still many people on legacy benefits. And the current computer systems dealing with these are outdated and are programmed to only do a once a year uplift.

See my other posts relating to these.

Example: people who are not pensioners and receive legacy benefit - income support.

Rishi Sunak announced the first package of help for people stung by the rising cost of living from the House of Commons on Thursday, as Boris Johnson’s Government struggles to curry favour among Britons after the Sue Gray report. The Chancellor has targeted society’s most vulnerable with a combination of one-off payments and discounts designed to help them avoid financial hardship in 2022. Universal Credit, Tax Credit, Pension Credit,

and legacy benefit claimants are among those soon to receive the vital aid.

Let’s hope so as many didn’t get the £20.00 uplift that went to people of UC over the pandemic.

The “we can only uprate once a year” statement is a lie. Otherwise you wouldn’t be getting a £10 Christmas bonus every year, bearing in mind that was a temporary payment set in the mid-70s and has to be agreed every year. It’s not automatic, no matter how derisory.

The trouble with newspapers like the Mail (I’m being generous) is that they have staff who know nothing about the benefits system and tend to believe that there is no one on any other type of benefit. After all, UC was supposed to have been fully rolled out years ago. They haven’t a clue about “legacy benefits.”

The government’s own website has details of the statement: Millions of most vulnerable households will receive £1,200 of help with cost of living - GOV.UK

I’ve picked out the most important bit - the emphasis is mine, because it’s easily missed: “The significant intervention includes a new, one-off £650 payment to more than 8 million low-income households on Universal Credit, Tax Credits, Pension Credit and legacy benefits, with separate one-off payments of £300 to pensioner households and £150 to individuals receiving disability benefits – groups who are most vulnerable to rising prices.”

Extension of the Household Support Fund In order to help those who may ‘fall through the cracks’ – for example, people on housing benefit who are not claiming any other benefits – Sunak says the government will extend the Household Support Fund, delivered by local authorities, by £500m from October. The Household Support Fund is a measure that provides households with payments to help with essentials such as food, utilities and clothing. It was first introduced in September 2021 and was due to run until 31 March 2022, before being extended. Half of the fund is set aside for households with children.