No Xmas Bonus

yankee77

Hi

Have they now stopped the Xmas Bonus for 2014? It says first week in December Xmas Bonus Payment of £0.00 will be made.

I get ESA Support Group Contribution Based, and also Low Rate Mobility. I get £221.70 a fortnight I can't figure out if my money goes up this year also, it does state top up payment of £2.70 but do not know if that is within the entitlement of £110.85 a week.

My income related amount is £108.15...plus the £2.70 brings it to 110.85 a week. I am sure I read somewhere that my money goes up by 55p a week.

Mr_Lawnmower

In 2013, some people on Income Related ESA (only) and DLA were incorrectly not paid Christmas Bonus with their DLA. It's possible the confusion within the part of DWP administering DLA that I dealt with in post 16 of that thread is continuing for a second year.


I apologise that what follows reads rather like gobbledegook. This is, I promise, a simplification of the law itself!


ESA(Cont) in the WRAG or Support Group, together with DLA or PIP, should mean Christmas Bonus is paid with the ESA, regardless of whether you have ESA(IR) or not.

ESA(IR) is not a qualifying benefit for Christmas Bonus until the Welfare Reform Act 2012 change mentioned in the linked thread is brought into effect. This has still not happened. People on ESA(IR) in the WRAG or Support Group who have DLA or PIP but no ESA(Cont) should receive Christmas Bonus with the DLA or PIP unless the change I mentioned is brought into effect before the beginning of December. This payment wasn't made to some DLA recipients in 2013.

Those on ESA(Cont) at the nil rate, because they are not in the Support Group and have had the allowed 52 weeks of payments, are treated as if they do not have ESA(Cont) for Christmas Bonus purposes according to the way I read s. 150 Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (as amended).


As has been said, £10 is such a low sum that many people can't be bothered to fight for it.

It doesn't help that the law on Christmas Bonus has been amended so many times that you have no hope of coming up with the correct answer on entitlement unless you have access to an up to date consolidated version with any uncommenced amendments clearly marked. There is no free source of such information - legislation.gov.uk is way behind on embodying amendments and commencements. There's chunks of the Equality Act 2010 that came into operation in October 2010 still marked as "Prospective" on legislation.gov.uk.

Upsidedown_Bear

Christmas bonus info:
https://www.gov.uk/christmas-bonus/overview

Benefit rates for 2014/15:
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/275291/Benefit_and_Pension_rates_2014-15.pdf