Low income benefits and tax credits Cost of Living Payment eligibility
You may be entitled to up to 3 Cost of Living Payments of £301, £300 and £299 if you get any of the following benefits or tax credits on certain dates:
· income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
· income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
· Income Support
· Pension Credit
· Universal Credit
· Child Tax Credit
· Working Tax Credit
The payment will be made separately from your benefit payments.
You will not get a payment if you are only getting New Style ESA, contributory ESA, or New Style JSA.
Disability Cost of Living Payment eligibility
You may be entitled to a Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150 if you’re getting any of any of the following benefits:
· Attendance Allowance
· Constant Attendance Allowance
· Disability Living Allowance for adults
· Disability Living Allowance for children
· Personal Independence Payment
· Adult Disability Payment (in Scotland)
· Child Disability Payment (in Scotland)
· Armed Forces Independence Payment
· War Pension Mobility Supplement
You must have received a payment (or later receive a payment) of one of these benefits for 1 April 2023 to get the Disability Cost of Living Payment.
Most people were paid the £150 Disability Cost of Living Payment automatically between 20 June 2023 and 4 July 2023.
Pensioner Cost of Living Payment
If you’re entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024, you will get an extra £150 or £300 paid with your normal payment from November 2023.
The full amount of Winter Fuel Payment (including the Pensioner Cost of Living Payment) you will get for winter 2023 to 2024 depends on when you were born and your circumstances during the qualifying dates.
You can get a Winter Fuel Payment for winter 2023 to 2024 if you were born before 25 September 1957.
You can read more on this and report missing cost of living payments here.
NOTE – If you have a bank overdraft instruct your bank not to use any of the Government support payments to reduce your overdraft, unless you want to use the money towards the overdraft.
Help with your water bills
The affinity water low income fixed rate tariff is available to customers who are earning less than £17,005 a year, or who are currently claiming certain benefits; such as Universal Credit or Job Seeker's Allowance. if you are eligible you will receive a fixed rate on your clean water bill. additionally you will have a fixed rate applied to your waste water should you meet their slightly different criteria. you can apply for this tariff here.
scams awareness
There has been a significant increase in scammers attempting to get personal information if you are the victim of a scam or worried about scams please get in touch with our consumer helpline.
Council Tax Support
If you are on a low income, claim benefits or pension age and need financial support could get money off their council tax bill. Visit www.Turn2us.org.uk and use their online benefit entitlement calculator to check if you, or someone you know, is eligible.
Foodbanks
There are a number of community food banks within the town. Citizens Advice Stevenage can refer residents in need to The Food shed (Stevenage Vineyard). Call 0800 144 8848 or visit. www.stevenagecab.org.uk/get-advice.
However, in an emergency you can contact HertsHelp on 0300 123 4044
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9am – 5pm
Wednesday, 9am – 7pm
Saturday – Sunday, 10am – 4pm.
You can also find non referral food support on our website blog here;
Warm Spaces
Citizens Advice support
We are here to help with a variety of issues through our adviceline, You can contact an adviser through our national phone service:
Adviceline (England): 0800 144 8848
Relay UK - if you can't hear or speak on the phone, you can type what you want to say: 18001 then the Adviceline number
You can use Relay UK with an app or a textphone. There’s no extra charge to use it. Find out how to use Relay UK on the Relay UK website.
Adviceline’s available 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. It’s usually busiest at the beginning and end of the day. It's not available on public holidays.
If you call from a mobile, we’ll ask you to enter a local landline number on your keypad. This can be any number - we only use it to send your call to a local adviser if one’s available.
There are a few parts of England we don’t cover yet. If you’re in one of these areas, we’ll give you other options when you call.
We’ll answer as soon as we can - at busy times you might need to wait up to an hour. If the wait is long, we’ll tell you about other ways to get advice. You can also try calling again later.
Calls to Adviceline are free from mobiles and landlines. You can see more about our call charges.
You can also use our email advice form here
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