The next £324 cost of living payment date....vague!

biggysmaller

I cannot find a date for the next payment of £324 other than by the end of October! Surely they DWP could easily supply a date from when this payment wil be issued.

Does anyone have any more info than the vague information I could find?

NedS

It's not been announced yet, other than Autumn or Winter depending what benefit you are receiving:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment

RobinHill

I think the vagueness may be deliberate. My partner has qualified for UC every month bar last April / May, which just happened to be the qualifying period for the first COL payment. Back dated pay of around £100 which her employer should have paid month by month was paid in the qualifying month taking her just over the UC threshold by about £10 :-(

[Deleted User]

I'm hoping they will pay the £324 in early or mid October so I can buy some supplies for winter. 

Would it be possible the government could announce further help this Friday during the mini budget? I'm grateful for the £650 either way. As a carer my income is very low so the grant is very much welcomed during these trying times. 

KxMx

It's possible the Queen's death pushed back an announcement about this. I think with the mini budget imminent, we will hear something more concrete soon.

Spoonie_Turtle

I've seen reports of 'by the end of October' but haven't found the official source for that?

Robbie64

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I've seen reports of 'by the end of October' but haven't found the official source for that?

It's the second qualifying date that must be "not later than 31 October 2022" (Social Security (Additional Payments) Act 2022, Section 1). The first £326 wasn't paid until around 2 months after the qualifying date. Unless the Government want to be paying people the £324 over the Christmas / New Year period, with all the chaos that would cause, the qualifying date will have to be either much earlier than 31/10/22 or if later in October, payments will have to be made much quicker. The alternative is that payments are made in January which is probably not politically acceptable.

Spoonie_Turtle

Robbie64 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I've seen reports of 'by the end of October' but haven't found the official source for that?

It's the second qualifying date that must be "not later than 31 October 2022" (Social Security (Additional Payments) Act 2022, Section 1). The first £326 wasn't paid until around 2 months after the qualifying date. Unless the Government want to be paying people the £324 over the Christmas / New Year period, with all the chaos that would cause, the qualifying date will have to be either much earlier than 31/10/22 or if later in October, payments will have to be made much quicker. The alternative is that payments are made in January which is probably not politically acceptable.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I'd have thought the gap between qualification date and payment of the first part may not necessarily be an indication of what will happen with the second though, as they had to set it all up and clarify details the first time round.  The second time round surely ought to be more straightforward.

NedS

Robbie64 said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

I've seen reports of 'by the end of October' but haven't found the official source for that?

It's the second qualifying date that must be "not later than 31 October 2022" (Social Security (Additional Payments) Act 2022, Section 1). The first £326 wasn't paid until around 2 months after the qualifying date. Unless the Government want to be paying people the £324 over the Christmas / New Year period, with all the chaos that would cause, the qualifying date will have to be either much earlier than 31/10/22 or if later in October, payments will have to be made much quicker.

I'm assuming the qualifying dates will have ended before they are announced. For example, if they were to stick with the 26-25th date range of the initial announcement, they may go with APs ending 26th Aug to 25th Sept, announce that in the last week in Sept (after 25th), with payments made in the second half of October.

MattMattMattUK

Deleted_User said:

I'm hoping they will pay the £324 in early or mid October so I can buy some supplies for winter. 

Would it be possible the government could announce further help this Friday during the mini budget? I'm grateful for the £650 either way. As a carer my income is very low so the grant is very much welcomed during these trying times. 

It is possible, but I suspect highly unlikely. The government have give a range of direct handouts and have also implemented the EPG, total costs are estimated at £150-200 billion over the next two years, on top of that Kwarteng is expected to announce £30 billion or more of tax cuts so there is unlikely to be additional lump sums beyond what has been announced. In April benefits will rise with inflation though, so an increase in the 9-15% range depending on where the figure actually ends up.

alexnurse12052022

Very annoying as I am trying to find out for some of my clients that I support. I think a lot of people (like me), Googled "Autumn" to find out what dates Autumn actually covers! 

I'd be annoyed being told a "season" as an answer.

You will get your cost of living payment sometime around when there are lots of crisp brown leaves on the pavements, and the temperature starts dropping.