Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many service personnel and veterans have (a) been identified as eligible and (b) received an additional benefits payment to help with the cost of living as of 1 June 2022.

Six million individuals who qualify through their entitlement to disability benefits including War Pension Constant Attendance Allowance, War Pension Mobility Supplement or Armed Forces Independence Payment on May 25^th will receive a one-off Disability Cost of Living payment of £150 in the Autumn.

Latest published statistics on those in receipt of the Armed Forces Independence Payment can be found at:

20210624 - Armed Forces Compensation Scheme Annual Statistic 2021 - Statistic - O (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Latest published statistics on those in receipt of the War Pension Constant Attendance Allowance and the War Pension Mobility Supplement can be found at:
War Pensions Scheme statistics: 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Some service personnel and veterans may also be entitled to other payments announced in this package, these include:

• The £650 Cost of Living Payment, that will be paid to more than 8 million low-income households on a means-tested benefits over two instalments - the first from July, the second in the autumn.
• A separate, one-off payment of £300 to pensioner households (through and as an addition to the Winter Fuel Payment).
• The £400 of support for energy bills that the Government is providing through the expansion of the Energy Bills Support Scheme, doubling the £200 of support announced earlier this year and making the whole £400 a non-repayable grant.
• An additional £500 million to support households, bringing the total funding for this support to £1.5 billion. In England this will take the form of an extension to the Household Support Fund backed by £421m. Devolved administrations will receive £79 million through the Barnett formula.
• Previously announced measures to help people tackle the cost of living, including frozen alcohol duty and fuel duty, raising the NICs threshold, council tax rebates and the further rise in the National Living Wage to £9.50 an hour from April 2022.

The department began collecting the armed forces status on new Universal Credit (UC) claims from April 2021 and UC claimants declaring their work and earnings from June 2021. From July 2021, Jobcentre work coaches could add information if the claimant were known to be serving or a veteran and had not already provided their status. For assessment periods ending in April 2022, we held a response for approximately 45% of the UC caseload. From this data we have identified 33,800 UC claimants who have previously served in the Armed Forces.

No assessment has been made of the total number of service personnel and veterans who are eligible for and will receive Cost of Living payments across all eligible benefits.

Further information on these payments will be discussed in Parliament as part of the legislative process to ensure their delivery.