Millions of people could benefit from another DWP cost of living payment. It comes as a vital new funding package has come a big step closer.
The funding would help around eight million households with proven benefits. The cash boost will come if parliament passes a new law.
LancsLive reports that the Social Security (Additional Payments) Bill (#2) was passed at second reading stage earlier this week by MPs.
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It will come under more scrutiny at a later date and paves the way for more vital funding for struggling families. The bill states that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will pay a cost-of-living payment of £900 in three installments to millions of households with proven benefits and a further £150 for people on disability benefits.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride told MPs: “We still recognize that despite the relief that (reducing inflation) will bring to millions of people across the country, we still need to provide more support payments.”
The legislation, he added, will establish the “qualification bases for payments”, who makes the payments and when. He said: “The reality is that we can’t solve all the difficult aspects here, but what we did is split the payments into three payments this fiscal year.”
Stride continued: “This government is on the side of those most in need.” Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Jonathan Ashworth said Labor would not oppose the legislation as people “need additional support”.
He said: “We will not divide the House this afternoon because it is clear that our constituents need additional support.” He added: “Families have been asked to endure the most brutal cuts and freezes on Social Security that have left unemployment benefits at their lowest levels for 30 years.
“It means that the poorest families have entered this crisis with less resilience, less protection and less to fall back on than they otherwise would have had… I have heard stories of retirees using tea lights to try and heat tin cans in vain. beans.
“The safety net is now so threadbare that in this food bank in Britain, starvation, cold and constant fear of bailiffs has become a way of life, but it shouldn’t be a way of life.”
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