Social Security Benefits: Energy

(asked on 9th June 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending the £650 support for the rise in energy prices to people who receive (a) Personal Independence Payments and (b) Carer's Allowance.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 14th June 2022

The £650 means-tested benefit one-off Cost of Living Payments have been designed to target support for 8 million households with low incomes, on means-tested benefits. Personal Independence Payment and Carer’s Allowance are not means tested, but customers in receipt of these, and other, non-means tested who are also entitled to an eligible means-tested benefit will receive the payment. This means nearly 60% of those who are working age on Carer’s Allowance will get a Cost of Living Payment.

In addition, 6 million disabled people who receive an eligible non-means tested disability benefits, including Personal Independence Payments, will receive a one-off disability Cost of Living Payment of £150. Where people met the criteria for both types of payments, they will receive both the £650 and the £150, and carers living in the same household as the disabled person for whom they care will benefit from the disability Cost of Living Payment. The payments will be made automatically in September, bringing total support for households this year to £37 billion.

These payments are part of the government’s £15bn package of support and sits alongside the £400 per household universal support being provided through the Energy Bills Support Scheme, an increased Winter Fuel Payment and the extension of the Household Support Fund, on top of the £22bn the government has already announced to support households with the cost of living.

Reticulating Splines