January 2024 dates for advantages, pensions and cost of living payments

Get the free Morning Headlines e mail for information from our reporters the world over

Sign as much as our free Morning Headlines e mail

As inflation eases as soon as extra to three.9 %, many proceed to battle amid the continuing cost of living disaster. Despite the determine inching nearer the Bank of England’s 2 % goal, family payments, grocery prices and mortages proceed to stay excessive.

Research from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) exhibits that as many as 2m households within the UK have discovered themselves pressured to unplug their fridge or freezer to maintain payments low, warning of “frightening” ranges of hardship. Meanwhile, they are saying 2.8m individuals had run into debt to pay for meals, and 1 in 6 say they’ve been pressured to make use of a “warm room”.

Here is a short overview of the state monetary help out there to low-income households this January and the dates on which advantages recipients can count on their cash to be paid out.

Will my advantages be paid earlier than the brand new 12 months?

If any of your traditional payments are due on New Year’s Day (January 1), Saturday 30, or Sunday 31 December, you need to obtain them on Friday 29 December as an alternative.

Benefits going out as traditional

The traditional state help within the form of advantages and pensions payments shall be going out as regular in January, with no financial institution holidays scheduled to confuse supply dates, besides for New Year’s Day. These are:

For extra data on how and when state advantages are paid, please go to the federal government’s web site.

When to count on the subsequent cost of living fee

The last cost of living fee of £299 shall be paid between February 6, 2024 and February 22, 2024. People receiving sure advantages or tax credit are eligible for the cost of living fee. These embody: Universal Credit, Jobseeker’s Allowance , Employment help allowance, Income help, Pension credit score, Child tax credit score, and Working tax credit score.

This fee follows a number of others made all through 2023:

If you imagine you might be eligible for these payments, however haven’t acquired them, you need to contact the DWP.

Warm Home Discount

First launched in 2011, this scheme delivers a £150 reduce to home electrical energy and gasoline payments for qualifying recipients. A one-off low cost utilized robotically to your invoice between early October 2023 and 31 March 2024, you might be eligible for the scheme if obtain the assure credit score ingredient of pension credit score or in case you are on a low revenue and have excessive vitality prices.

Energy Price Cap forecast to fall

Ofgem has introduced that the EPC has been set at £1,923 for the ultimate quarter of this 12 months (or £1,949 for these on pre-payment plans) and will then rise barely to £1,928 (or £1,960 for pre-payment) for the primary quarter of 2024.

Analysts at Cornwall Insight foresee an extra fall by the point the subsequent EPC is introduced for subsequent 12 months’s second quarter, at which level it predicts the everyday annual invoice shall be at £1,816.46.

The current decline in costs is reflective of current drops in wholesale vitality prices – the quantity vitality companies pay for their electrical energy and gasoline earlier than supplying it to households – and, though it’s a important slide from the eye-watering charges of the final two years, the determine nonetheless stays nearly £1,000 a 12 months above pre-pandemic ranges.

Are advantages and pensions set to extend in 2024?

Benefits and state pension are set to extend in April 2024.

In his autumn assertion, Jeremy Hunt that advantages are going to be elevated by the September price of inflation of 6.7 %. He additionally introduced that state pension shall be elevated by 8.5 % across the similar time.

However, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has warned that failure to lift the advantages cap will push extra individuals past its threshold, that means a real-terms reduce for many.