Cost Of Living Payment

scottleag

Shop around. I won't post links to commercial companies but a few minutes with Mr Google should help. You can get a decent starter kit for around £20 or less. Fluid at three or four bottles for a tenner or £1 each at Poundstretcher, Iceland and probably other places. Taking kit into account I reckon I'm spending around £1 per day. I've been vaping for ten years so have no idea what the price of baccy or fags is these days but I imagine it will be something horrific

Aquapara

Yeh baccy is around £80 per week for me and that's imported. Yeh I just was fed up with the last vape shop I was going to because they soon stopped selling the parts like coils for the vapes I bought and I still have quite a lot of liquids leftover and I have been buying 3500 disposables for £12 for bedtime. I am soon going to get a 10,000 puff vape for £13 when I next get some money as I havnt tried that yet.

mrsyardbroom

poppy12345 said:

mrsyardbroom said:

No-one seems to know if you get  the payment when you're on pension savings credit. People are telling me I'm not eligible because it's not the guarantee credit, but I got the payment last year. This year my friends have had letters saying they'll get a payment and I haven't had anything. I didn't get the warm home discount last year either as I was switched from Bulb to Octopus and Octopus didn't seem to be paying it to new customers.

You should be entitled to the CoL payment when you receive any Pension Credit. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/cost-of-living-payment#low-income-benefits-and-tax-credits-cost-of-living-payment-eligibility they do not send letters out for the Cost of living payments.

You're also automatically entitled to the Warm Home Discount, regardless of which part of Pension Credit you're receiving. If you switched to Octopus after middle of August last year then this could be why you didn't receive it. You should receive it this year.  https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme/guarantee-pension-credit

Just for your reference, I got the COL payment before I got the letter. They send a letter out saying the COL payment is included in the winter fuel allowance. I haven't had the £200 WFP yet.

poppy12345

Aquapara said:

Yeh baccy is around £80 per week for me and that's imported. Yeh I just was fed up with the last vape shop I was going to because they soon stopped selling the parts like coils for the vapes I bought and I still have quite a lot of liquids leftover and I have been buying 3500 disposables for £12 for bedtime. I am soon going to get a 10,000 puff vape for £13 when I next get some money as I havnt tried that yet.

£80/week for baccy?? Blimey, has it increased by that much in the past 4 years? Or did you mean £80/month? I’m an ex smoker and used to roll my own too. I quit almost 4 years ago. 

The disposable vapes are very expensive! And they don’t last long at all. You’re much better off buying yourself a small vape with the liquid. I replaced my vape last week and mine only cost me £24. 

How long a vape lasts will depend on how much you use it. If you’re a heavy vaper then it won’t last as long naturally. Although, even when you do need to replace it, it’s definitely much cheaper than smoking. 

olgadapolga

HillStreetBlues said:

Sorry if I missed it, but anyone solely on Tax Credits won't start getting their payments until Friday 10th Nov according to the i
https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/when-next-cost-of-living-payment-final-instalment-paid-2024-2729468

It appears that this is the case, according to the text message I just received from HMRC.

Spoonie_Turtle

gbhxu said:

I'm thinking they are paying by the last 2 digits of your National Insurance number.

Mine is between 61 and 80

Mine is above 80 and I normally get it within the first few days (as with this time) so no.  And my last letter is early enough in the alphabet for that not to make sense either, as that would have meant I should have got it earlier than I did.

We had this before with the first CoL payments, people were trying to figure it out but nobody could suggest a method that made any particular sense AND was reflected in reality.  It doesn't really matter either, just as long as everyone gets what they're entitled to and usually within the initial period DWP say as the time frame.

Aquapara

poppy12345 said:

Aquapara said:

Yeh baccy is around £80 per week for me and that's imported. Yeh I just was fed up with the last vape shop I was going to because they soon stopped selling the parts like coils for the vapes I bought and I still have quite a lot of liquids leftover and I have been buying 3500 disposables for £12 for bedtime. I am soon going to get a 10,000 puff vape for £13 when I next get some money as I havnt tried that yet.

£80/week for baccy?? Blimey, has it increased by that much in the past 4 years? Or did you mean £80/month? I’m an ex smoker and used to roll my own too. I quit almost 4 years ago. 

The disposable vapes are very expensive! And they don’t last long at all. You’re much better off buying yourself a small vape with the liquid. I replaced my vape last week and mine only cost me £24. 

How long a vape lasts will depend on how much you use it. If you’re a heavy vaper then it won’t last as long naturally. Although, even when you do need to replace it, it’s definitely much cheaper than smoking. 

Per week poppy lol! I smoke alot and yeh I will try and invest in another vape but will have a proper look around and ask about which vape shop is good because the last one was seriously annoying not having spares in etc. 

Aquapara

I even tried getting a discretionary payment from the council yesterday and today as soon as they closed their lines they text me saying I've had maximum claims. Their max claims is naturally 3 per year and I've read the rules of their policy and it's a rolling year so I first claimed last year in September and this october I tried and nope. They added 2 more claims you can have with extra government funding and it's like they are basically trying to fob me off until late next year and will make out the extra 2 are the 3 original claims. I knew they would do exactly this today so I couldn't ring up and appeal and I cant believe I havnt even got any butter or much milk.

Aquapara

Aquapara said:

I even tried getting a discretionary payment from the council yesterday and today as soon as they closed their lines they text me saying I've had maximum claims. Their max claims is naturally 3 per year and I've read the rules of their policy and it's a rolling year so I first claimed last year in September and this october I tried and nope. They added 2 more claims you can have with extra government funding and it's like they are basically trying to fob me off until late next year and will make out the extra 2 are the 3 original claims. I knew they would do exactly this today so I couldn't ring up and appeal and I cant believe I havnt even got any butter or much milk.

Oh and 10am yesterday all councils were giving discretionary payments again with extra government funding, so they surely should have gave me one today

Muttleythefrog

Aquapara said:

poppy12345 said:

Aquapara said:

Yeh baccy is around £80 per week for me and that's imported. Yeh I just was fed up with the last vape shop I was going to because they soon stopped selling the parts like coils for the vapes I bought and I still have quite a lot of liquids leftover and I have been buying 3500 disposables for £12 for bedtime. I am soon going to get a 10,000 puff vape for £13 when I next get some money as I havnt tried that yet.

£80/week for baccy?? Blimey, has it increased by that much in the past 4 years? Or did you mean £80/month? I’m an ex smoker and used to roll my own too. I quit almost 4 years ago. 

The disposable vapes are very expensive! And they don’t last long at all. You’re much better off buying yourself a small vape with the liquid. I replaced my vape last week and mine only cost me £24. 

How long a vape lasts will depend on how much you use it. If you’re a heavy vaper then it won’t last as long naturally. Although, even when you do need to replace it, it’s definitely much cheaper than smoking. 

Per week poppy lol! I smoke alot and yeh I will try and invest in another vape but will have a proper look around and ask about which vape shop is good because the last one was seriously annoying not having spares in etc. 

Get online... forget the vape shops as more expensive. I reckon for the equivalent of 2 weeks smoking you can vape heavily for a year with a good spec new vaping device. In the starkest terms you have an £80 a week drug addiction which you could reduce to a small fraction of and with healthier outcome and be able to afford lots of milk and butter. I do have to say... and I would hope those in your life if not yourself would do also... but unless you are especially requiring of tobacco specifically to deliver nicotine fix (and as an ex 40-50 cigarettes a day I have no personal experience of vaping other than to choke on my wife's when she insists on getting me to agree about some new flavour) then fighting for discretionary payments in the circumstances (or indeed waiting for a special payment like this COL £300) is a bit like trying to open a tin can with your fingers while staring at a can opener. The solution is probably right in front of you.

My wife just orders these things online.. vape machine she changes about every 3 years... her charger has lasted many years and a handful of batteries to go with such... perhaps 6 will last a year or beyond. The coils she tends to get good ones that last about a month each. She buys the base mixes for the liquids along with flavours and nicotine... and spends maybe 5 minutes a month making the stuff in batches.