Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy that people receiving contributory-based (a) Employment and Support Allowance and (b) other benefits should be eligible for (i) the Cost-of-living Payment and (ii) other financial support for increases in the cost of living.

The Cost of Living Payment is rightly being targeted at low income households who are in receipt of a means-tested income replacement benefit. Non-means tested benefits are not qualifying benefits for the Cost of Living Payment in their own right because people receiving these benefits may have other financial resources available to them. We have no plans to change the current eligibility criteria.

Cost of Living Payment, 6 million disabled people who receive an eligible non-means tested disability benefit, including Personal Independence Payments, have received a one-off Disability Cost of Living Payment of £150.

These payments are part of the Government’s £15bn package of support and sit alongside

• a £300 Pensioner Cost of Living Payment to anyone entitled to a Winter Fuel Payment
• the extension of the Household Support Fund with an additional £421 million to support households with the cost of essentials
• a £150 Council Tax rebate sent earlier this year to those in Council Tax bands A-D in England, creating a total of at least £1,200 in direct support for millions
• The government has announced unprecedented support within its Growth Plan to protect households and businesses from high energy prices. The Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bill Relief Scheme are supporting millions of households and businesses with rising energy costs, and the Chancellor made clear they will continue to do so from now until April next year.

The guidance with the full list of support can be found at:

Overall government support for the cost of living: factsheet - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)