The £10 Christmas bonus

donnac2558

I doubt the winter fuel allowance for pensioners will be left to wither and die.   All those years of stories on TV and in the newspapers of pensioners unable to afford their heating in the cold months.  That was why it was brought in. 

calcotti

Marmaduke123 said: I suspect the same thing will happen to the winter fuel payment, it will be left to wither on the vine in the same way.

The Christmas bonus has been frozen a £10 ever since it was introduced by the Conservative government in 1972.
Winter Fuel Payment introduced by Labour government in 1997 has been increased a number of times (it was £20 when introduced, £30 for those on means tested benefits) but has been at the existing rates since 2003/2004, although some additional ‘one-off’ payments were made in some years. The last of these one-off payments was in the first year of the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition but had been legislated for by the Labour government before it lost power. The payment has not changed throughout the Coalition and Conservative years since and I think, for as long as they are in power, you are right that the payments are likely to be left to wither. Full history here https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06019/SN06019.pdf

Sprinkly

Had mine on 7th December. 

rich_shot2003

i am on ESA and got that last week but not the £10 bonus so next ESA is due on Christmas eve so take it that the £10 will be in with that payment?

[Deleted User]

rich_shot2003 said:

i am on ESA and got that last week but not the £10 bonus so next ESA is due on Christmas eve so take it that the £10 will be in with that payment?

Or it could come as a separate payment. 

calcotti

rich_shot2003 said:

i am on ESA and got that last week but not the £10 bonus so next ESA is due on Christmas eve so take it that the £10 will be in with that payment?

You will not get the bonus if you are on income based ESA nor if you are in the first 13 weeks of your new style ESA claim. https://www.gov.uk/christmas-bonus/eligibility.

rich_shot2003

calcotti said:

rich_shot2003 said:

i am on ESA and got that last week but not the £10 bonus so next ESA is due on Christmas eve so take it that the £10 will be in with that payment?

You will not get the bonus if you are on income based ESA nor if you are in the first 13 weeks of your new style ESA claim. https://www.gov.uk/christmas-bonus/eligibility.

i am over the 13 weeks and as i get PIP as well i will get it for that.

i should had put PIP not ESA in my post.

Doom_and_Gloom

The £10 can be separate from the PIP payment. I had my last PIP payment at the end of November and got the £10 a couple of days ago. Do keep an eye on the amount that goes in as they can put it in the PIP payment so you may miss it if you don't look closely.

JonVarnas

Even though it's only a tenner, it's still enough to cause an annual fit of anger on my local facebook groups:

"Where's my bonus?....Why are they giving bonuses to people sat on their !!!!!!?...Always forget the hardworking....etc...etc"

Spoonie_Turtle

JonVarnas said:

Even though it's only a tenner, it's still enough to cause an annual fit of anger on my local facebook groups:

"Where's my bonus?....Why are they giving bonuses to people sat on their !!!!!!?...Always forget the hardworking....etc...etc"

Ugh. If they stopped wallowing in their outrage for 2 minutes to look up the criteria, they'd easily find the common theme *rolleyes*