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Dates given for payments to low-income households

Low-income households will receive living expenses payments between Tuesday 25 April and Wednesday 17 May, the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) says.

The £900 cash support for over eight million means-tested beneficiaries includes people on Universal Credit, Pension Credit and Tax Credits.

It will go straight to bank accounts in three payments, the DWP said.

More than six million people with disabilities will receive an additional £150.

Separately, over eight million pensioners will receive an extra £300.

The three payments of up to £900 vary by eligibility.

It follows the two payments totaling £650 already made to more than eight million low-income households.

The first installment of £326 was paid between 14th and 31st July. The second installment of £324 should have reached claimants by the end of December.

The payment reference on recipients’ bank accounts was their social security number followed by “DWP COLP,” as will be the case for the new payments.

Tax credit only customers who are not entitled to a payment from DWP will receive their payment from HMRC shortly after DWP payments have started.

The measures are part of government aid to support people with the rising cost of living, which is rising at near record speed. It comes as the £400 energy bill help for all UK residents ends in April.

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Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Works and Pensions, said the cost of living payments would give the most vulnerable a “financial boost”.

But charities and poverty activists have said the payments don’t go far enough to mitigate the impact of rising prices.

“The Government has recycled funding announcements and in general this amount just wipes the edges of what people are really experiencing,” Fuel Poverty Action’s Stuart Bretherton told the BBC.

“We want a radical reform of energy prices so that nobody falls below their minimum energy needs,” he said.

In response, a spokesman for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said, “We know this is a difficult time for families, which is why the government covers about half of a typical household’s energy bill.”

The spokesman added that improving energy efficiency in homes is the best long-term way to tackle fuel poverty.

Meanwhile, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “I know times are tough, which is why a focus of the spring budget was helping people with the cost of living and getting people into well-paying jobs.”

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