Cost of Living Nil Award

kazzyd_2

Up to now I thought I would qualify for the Cost of Living payment, however, I'm not so sure now.
I work part time and I'm on UC, my payments are always zero because of my earnings but I always have around £200 paid to my landlord for rent.

Does this mean I don't qualify?

calcotti

The fact that your payment is made direct to your landlord makes no difference. You are entitled to the UC so you qualify.

kazzyd_2

Thank you @calcotti, I wasn't sure.

calcotti

The key phrase is "you must have been entitled to a payment ". You are entitled but choose to have it paid direct to your landlord.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment

gizmo1961

I am in same situation and DWP have confirmed if we receive nil payment and payment does directly for housing we are not eligible

gizmo1961

The system they are using will only issue cost of living payment to claimants who receive a direct payment as it's worked out from your salary

Spoonie_Turtle

gizmo1961 said:

I am in same situation and DWP have confirmed if we receive nil payment and payment does directly for housing we are not eligible

DWP are useless at giving advice.  The official guidance says: "If money has also been taken off for other reasons (such as payments of rent to your landlord or for money that you owe), you might still be eligible."

gizmo1961

The advisor said the housing allowance payment is it taken into consideration for the cost of living payment and checked with their manager who confirmed that I wouldn't be entitled

poppy12345

gizmo1961 said:

The advisor said the housing allowance payment is it taken into consideration for the cost of living payment and checked with their manager who confirmed that I wouldn't be entitled

You should be aware that when ringing UC you're speaking to someone from a call centre, with very little knowledge. They very often give incorrect advice. One of the last places anyone should go to for such advice is a call centre.

calcotti

gizmo1961 said:

The advisor said the housing allowance payment is it taken into consideration for the cost of living payment and checked with their manager who confirmed that I wouldn't be entitled

UC are not administering the CoL payments.

Furzeguy

I may well be wrong, I often am, but I think the problem is not so much that people are in a hurry to get the money but they are unsure if they will get it at all as even the government guidelines which Calcotti quoted say "you may qualify" which does leave room for doubt.

Additionally since it is impossible to rely on UC to give advice on eligibility since they are not administering the scheme people feel that all they can do is wait until the end of July and then if they have not received the payment try and find out 

a) who to ask about it and 

b) How to get it if they actually are entitled.

On another forum it has been said that those who only got a housing element paid direct to  them or to the landlord will not qualify because just like housing benefit alone does not entitle you to a payment the rule has been made that the housing element does not either. Of course no source material is revealed for this so it just leaves more confusion.

I think one final thing that makes people worry is a general view among many people that the DWP often don't pay people the correct amount when the entitlement is clear let alone when it is not!

Also a mistrust of the government who like the positive public approval of the cost of living payments, but are keen to limit it as much as possible, by hiding lots of unpublished rules.

I am in the situation of only receiving housing payments myself and it does concern me. My living expenses on UC disappeared because I got a rise in old age pension as we are a mixed age couple and about £30 a week worse off than last year so anything we can get on top will be needed for the extra cost of living.