COST OF LIVING PAYMENTS: Help please!!!!!

Magenta

Hi all, hoping someone can help me here 

On September 10th I received a letter ( dated 24th August) from my local council  entitled: "Post Office Payout Voucher: Council Tax Rebate Scheme " which told me that I was eligible for the £150 Energy rebate, plus a £90 discretionary rebate as I receive Pension Credit.

 It said that I needed to collect the £240.00 cash payment at the Post Office, taking with me the letter and some identity paperwork.
Here I need to say that I am disabled and completely housebound and have no family.

On September 12th I phoned the number on the letter and explained that I have no way to collect this sum of money. 
They told me to wait for another letter. I am still waiting!

But my dilemma continues because yesterday I received another letter, from the council, telling me that I am eligible for a one off cashable voucher of £50( Pension age ) to be collected from the Post Office before 17th October 2002. Obviously I need to phone the same people again about this but........ I am just wondering if anyone else has any ideas or advice on what I can do!

By the way I haven't received the £150 Disability payment and have just filled a claim for it, using the link I found on this site.
So any thoughts anyone please would be appreciated. This is all getting me down in a worrying way unfortunately. 
Thank you for reading this long post 

Also just reading on the Forum about the £650.00 Cost of living payment for the year and puzzling what that payment is made up of exactly. 

THANK YOU Xxxxx.  

Spoonie_Turtle

What disability benefit do you claim, and were you entitled to a payment covering the 25th May?

The £650 is made up of two payments.  £326 in July if your claim for Pension Credit covers any date between 26th April to 25th May 2022, this should have showed up in your bank as 'DWP C O L'.  If you haven't had it, you can report it using the same link, on this page https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment#report-a-missing-cost-of-living-payment

The second payment of £324 will be in November if you are eligible for Pension Credit at any point between 26th August to 25th September.

I can't advise about the vouchers, unfortunately.  Hopefully someone else will be able to.

Magenta

Thanks for that clarification Spoonie-Turtle about the £650, I will be checking my bank account. 

pmlindyloo

Since you are on Pension Credit then you will have no council tax to pay.  So the council probably do not have any bank details where they can send the payments instead of using vouchers.

You may be out of time to collect some of the vouchers now (the PO should return them to the council) so it may be just the case that the council is waiting for verification that the vouchers have not been collected.

My suggestion is to call the council and give them some bank details so that when the non collection is reported they can pay the amounts into your bank account.

Does this make sense?

PS  Just to add that you can ask someone to collect the vouchers on your behalf.  They would need all the paperwork and your ID to do this.
Do you have a care worker that you trust or a neighbour?

Robbie64

Could you contact your local councillor and explain the difficulties you are having? Your local councillor should be able to speak to the correct department at the council and might be able to help resolve the problem.

Magenta

pmlindyloo said:

Since you are on Pension Credit then you will have no council tax to pay.  So the council probably do not have any bank details where they can send the payments instead of using vouchers.

You may be out of time to collect some of the vouchers now (the PO should return them to the council) so it may be just the case that the council is waiting for verification that the vouchers have not been collected.

My suggestion is to call the council and give them some bank details so that when the non collection is reported they can pay the amounts into your bank account.

Does this make sense?

PS  Just to add that you can ask someone to collect the vouchers on your behalf.  They would need all the paperwork and your ID to do this.
Do you have a care worker that you trust or a neighbour?

Thanks.
Unfortunately I have nobody who can collect it for me. If I had then I wouldn't be in the situation I am now.

Magenta

Robbie64 said:

Could you contact your local councillor and explain the difficulties you are having? Your local councillor should be able to speak to the correct department at the council and might be able to help resolve the problem.

Thanks Robbie64, that's a good idea. I'll do an Internet search to see who the councillor is for my area.