Thousands of people will start receiving the government's latest cost of living payment in the coming days. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is sending £299 to some of the most vulnerable households in Wales and across the UK.
The money is part of a combined support package worth £900 in the last 12 months and the final instalment, worth £299, began its roll out earlier this month. Over six million people have received the cash since February 6 and the money is now set to be sent out to even more households later this week.
Although this will mostly apply to those on tax credits, it could also see you get the money if your payment was delayed for certain reasons such as if you had closed your bank account. To get the latest money stories straight to your inbox twice a week sign up to our newsletter here.
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Since February 6, around 6.4 million people have received the £299 payment from the DWP. However, payments will continue until February 22, so if you haven't had it yet don't worry, as you should get it by that date if you qualify. A small number of payments might fail for certain reasons, such as if you have closed or changed your bank account, but both the DWP and HMRC have processes in place to manually send payments if this is the case.
From February 16, people on tax credits will start receiving the payment and this will go on until February 22. For tax credits-only customers to be eligible for the £299 cost of living payment, they must have received a payment of tax credits for any day between November 13 to December 12 or later receive such a payment for a day within that period.
The payments are tax-free, do not count towards the benefit cap and will not have any effect on any other benefits you get. The money will be paid into the account where your benefit is usually paid and appear as ‘HMRC COLS’, along with your National Insurance number.
If you’re getting both child tax credit and working tax credit, you will only receive one for child tax credit and this will be paid by HMRC. If you get tax credits from HMRC and a qualifying DWP benefit you will still only receive one payment of £299, not two. This will usually be paid by the DWP.
If you don’t receive the £299 payment by February 22, you can report it missing through the dedicated cost of living portal on GOV.UK here from February 23.
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