Some families to get a total of £1,200 cash, to support with cost of living crisis.

[flashbac]

Highlights:
All families can now keep the 200 quid energy payment, no longer repayment based. This will be topped up to £400.
Low income families to get £650 straight into bank account.
(Non means tested) disabled benefit recipients to get £150.
All in all some will receive total of £1,200.
Funded by windfall tax.

This isn’t about people getting recognition or who does what or who pays what tax. It’s about help for the energy price rises, which everyone will get, with those who need it the most getting a bit extra.

Bloody ignorant comment. Benefit claimants pay taxes too you know.

Still means they’re invisible because they’re not getting anything extra in recognition of unpaid caring duties which save the tax payer massive amounts of money
Nothing new there though. I feel so special every Christmas when I get my £10 bonus 🙄

£2800 a year equates to around £230 odd a month. After the increase in the cap many people are paying this and more. Doesn’t mean you’re using more energy, just paying more for the same usage.

I don't think they should get extra money as recognition for their work, but I do think carers should be a qualifying benefit for the extra money, in acknowledgement of the fact that my family income is significantly impacted by being a carer in the same way or would be if I was "unemployed" and on income support etc. As it is DS who gets DLA is 7, i get Carers, so we won't qualify

And you don’t think unpaid carers would fall into that category ?

I will be very great full for my £400 it will help massively to me .
I do wish the bigger picture had been taken into account.
My wage has only increased by £15 a month and my energy bills by £80 . I am very fortunate to have found a second job to try to bridge the gape . However I do know people who have made claiming benefits a lifestyle choice, so yes it stings they have been given £650 .
I can't say I completely understand how it's been targeted and in no way begrudge those who can't work because they are disabled , caregivers , to sick to work the money . I do however object to those who won't pick up extra hours , won't get a second job because it " affects there benefits" reviving it .
I think all benefits should be better targeted to those with genuine needs rather than the minority who use the benefit system as a lifestyle choice.

This is not correct - I suspect you have got the income and contribution based rates the wrong way around. The maximum you can claim on contribution based ESA is £235 per fortnight - and that’s only if you are considered so severely disabled or sick as to be in the support group. Those in the work related group get much less and ESA payments in the latter group stop after 12 months. Income related ESA is means tested and will include various premiums for different circumstances and the amount payable will vary accordingly. Income based ESA is still split into the two groups - support group and work related -but payments in the work related group do not stop after 12 months.

Luckily the Welsh and Scottish governments don't agree with you. Carers in those countries are receiving a one off payment in recognition of the work they did in the pandemic and to help with the cost of living crisis (£500 in Wales, not sure about Scotland). I hope England does the same.

Luckily the Welsh and Scottish governments don't agree with you. Carers in those countries are receiving a one off payment in recognition of the work they did in the pandemic and to help with the cost of living crisis (£500 in Wales, not sure about Scotland). I hope England does the same.

You misunderstand me @ClaudineClare
I'm not suggesting I'm unworthy of recognition.
I don't think I should get FUEL MONEY as recognition, I think I should get fuel money because I earn £67 a week.
A SEPERATE payment like Wales and Scotland should be seperate and in addition.

Sorry - got carried away clarifying the difference and forgot the main point that Contribution based ESA doesn’t qualify anyone for anything above the basic £400 rebate - it’s the income related ESA that counts.

I'm really grateful for the £400 we'll get too. We weren't entitled to the council tax money which was fair enough, I understand why, so getting this is very welcome.

SleepingStandingUp many apologies if I misunderstood. I thought you were saying carers don't deserve anything extra.

Carer's Allowance in general needs to be raised to a much higher amount.

This. Some of the views expressed on this thread are not very nice to say the least, and some of the benefits advice people are giving is totally inaccurate !! As this poster says, anger should be directed upwards, not downwards to the very people needing help the most. And as has been said numerous times before, introducing additional means testing to better target help would be prohibitively expensive, so help that’s now directed at actual people would be eaten up in admin costs - is that what you all want ? The Tories are masters at divide and rule and this thread is a perfect example of that. While we’re sniping at each other, we’re leaving the wealthiest alone. Well done.

Wow the benefit bashing on here is vile.

People don't choose to be disabled, or have to care for their unwell/elderly relatives. It's not like they say "oh I fancy not working anymore, better magically give myself arthritis!" Or whatever. How can anyone envy those who live on next to nothing? Just vile.

Earlier some questions re why not just keep cap as it is made me think about the process

I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong but this is the way I see it

global prices on oil and gas have gone up hugely - BP and Shell etc as oil and gas have bumper profits

Consumer energy companies have to pay more as the intermediary and as a result pass higher cost into consumer

the cap means it’s the intermediary that makes up the difference - hence loads of smaller energy companies collapsing when hikes first hit.

But because oil and gas have bumper profits they are redirecting some to energy companies which then helps us

a but like owning a shop and price of tomatoes hikes and you pass it on, but growers are benefitting not shops

So the cap has to rise, but taking bumper profit from oil and gas makes sense, although adding investment criteria is good imo

Anyway will post and see if I’m close

And those people who are accusing others of nothing more than ‘virtue signalling’ should take note. I hate that phrase - it’s become a catch all to put down anything you don’t like. On a newspaper thread this week, a poster was accused of virtue signalling, simply for saying they had never read the Daily Mail FFS !!

It goes beyond that. Since the pandemic hit, people have become a lot more judgmental in my experience. I recently been told to my face by people who are no more than acquaintances that I’m very lucky to be able to access the extra funding that PIP gives me, and the associated ‘free’ car. Despite the fact that I have a life long degenerative birth defect which renders me wheelchair bound, affects continence and results in almost constant discomfort. I used to shrug this kind of comment off as ignorance, but not any more. The ‘free’ car they refer to is via motability and is given in exchange for the mobility component of PIP - you don’t get both, as a lot of people seem to think. And if it hadn’t been for that car I would have been unable to travel to work and contribute something back. Like most other disabled people, I am very, very thankful that I live in a country like the UK, where these benefits are available, but I don’t need to constantly be reminded of it by people who only see the money and not the disability itself. Would you swap ?

But people on Carer's Allowance are not considered unable to work as they are allowed to earn up to £132 per week before losing the £69.70 per week allowance. It's shit but that's the way it is.

But in reality the nature of the care they have to give means they can’t work. I would love to be able to return to my career but it’s impossible to find work that will work around the complexities we face.

And, especially given the mental health battles many carers face due to their role, and the exhaustion that comes with it for many they shouldn’t feel pressured to take extra work just to make ends meet.

But people on Carer's Allowance are not considered unable to work as they are allowed to earn up to £132 per week before losing the £69.70 per week allowance. It's shit but that's the way it is

True, but the fact is that to be entitled to CA you must be providing 35 hours of care per week. So the government say you must be caring as a full time job to be entitled to CA but we won't pay you anything approaching a full time wage.

There are so many people who work and get benefits, i do as a single parent. I don’t work full time as there is no childcare the times I work as a nurse so I have to work my ex days off and my youngest has additional Needs we live in temporary accommodation so I did get the £150 which helps as I am really struggling with all the increases. i don’t know what I’ll get, but I doubt they will give us this again, so what happens next year? They’ve thrown money at this rather than trying to find a long term solution - basically to attempt to shut us up imo

Equally, it is acknowledged that carers often cannot work which is why e.g. on IS or UC they are not required to look for work.

I am one, we're def in agreement x