December and Christmas payment dates for benefits and state pension

Benefit claimants and state pensioners may want to check if their payment dates will change over the Christmas and New Year period.

People who would get their payments from December 23 to December 26 will instead receive their funds early, on December 22.

Those due payments over the New Year period, from December 30 to January 1, will also get their money early, with payments going out on December 29.

This applies to all these benefits and payments:

  • Attendance Allowance
  • Carer’s Allowance
  • Child Benefit
  • Disability Living Allowance
  • Employment and Support Allowance
  • Income Support
  • Jobseeker’s Allowance
  • Pension Credit
  • Personal Independence Payment
  • State pension
  • Universal Credit
  • Tax credits (such as Working Tax Credit).

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People on many benefits and on the state pension also get a £10 Christmas Bonus payment each year.

A person will need to be claiming an eligible benefit during the qualifying week to get the extra payment – this is usually the first full week of December.

People on these benefits will get the £10 Christmas Bonus:

  • Adult disability payment
  • Armed Forces independence payment
  • Attendance allowance
  • Carer’s allowance
  • Child disability payment
  • Constant attendance allowance (paid under industrial injuries or war pensions schemes)
  • Contribution-based employment and support allowance (once the main phase of the benefit is entered after the first 13 weeks of claim)
  • Disability living allowance
  • Incapacity benefit at the long-term rate
  • Industrial death benefit (for widows or widowers)
  • Mobility supplement
  • Pension credit (the guarantee element)
  • Personal independence payment (PIP)
  • State pension (including graduated retirement benefit)
  • Severe disablement allowance (transitionally protected)
  • Unemployability supplement or allowance (paid under industrial injuries or war pensions schemes)
  • War disablement pension at state pension age
  • War widow’s pension
  • Widowed mother’s allowance
  • Widowed parent’s allowance
  • Widow’s pension.

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Warm Home Discount

People on Pension Credit and others on low incomes may be eligible for the Warm Home Discount, a one-off £150 discount for electricity bills.

The money goes to a person’s energy supplier, who will then deduct the amount from their bills, with the discount applied between October 2023 and the end of March 2024.

Winter Fuel Payment with Pensioner Cost of Living Payment

The Winter Fuel Payment goes out to older Britons to help towards their heating bills. The money goes out to people born before September 25, 1957.

Payments range between £250 and £600 and this year include a Pensioner Cost of Living Payment, worth between £150 and £300.

Recipients will have received a letter to notify them of the payment, with the funds going out in November and December.

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Cold Weather Payments

As temperatures start to plummet, people on certain benefits or Support for Mortgage Interest may also receive one or several Cold Weather Payments.

This is a £25 payment that is paid to eligible people when temperatures fall below zero or are forecast to be below zero, for seven consecutive days.

The scheme is active from the start of November until the end of March next year. Weather forecasts indicate freezing temperatures could be coming to the UK on November 25, so the payments could be activated in some areas soon.

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