The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appears to have read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Because its latest policy shift, just in time to ruin millions of people’s Christmases, is straight out of the Scrooge playbook.
DWP: the miser’s touch
Many DWP claimants usually get a £10 Christmas ‘bonus’ from it. You get this if you are in receipt of various benefits, including:
- Carer’s Allowance.
- Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
- Severe Disablement Allowance.
But this year, people claiming Universal Credit who may have previously got those benefits will be getting a big, fat bonus of nothing from the DWP. Because it doesn’t give it out under its contentious new benefit.
But…! But…!
As i News reported:
The Christmas Bonus is a one-off, tax-free £10 payment made to people on certain benefits in the first week of December. It is designed to help those receiving benefits to cover the extra costs of Christmas…
But the one-off December payment is not made to people on Universal Credit
The DWP told i News:
Universal Credit claimants have never received a one-off December payment, but many disabled people on Universal Credit will be better off on average by £100 month than when they received ESA [Employment and Support Allowance].
That’s not really the point – as people on ESA never got the Christmas bonus anyway. Moreover, Universal Credit is still leaving some disabled people up to £300 a month worse off. So the DWP swiping yet more money from them is just another kick in the teeth.
Scrooging Grinchers
Twitter reacted accordingly to the DWP ‘Grinching’ all over Christmas 2018:
Just when you thought they couldn’t stoop any lower, the Government goes all Grinch on us.https://t.co/KNG6OEUDuk
— Andrew Gwynne MP (@GwynneMP) December 4, 2018
This is so spiteful, the real spirit of #Christmas bought to you courtesy of the #ToxicTories and the #DWP#WelfareRebellion#ExtinctionRebellion https://t.co/tCkwiqztGs
— bookworm (@readerbythesea) December 5, 2018
‘Christmas Bonus is a one-off, tax-free £10 payment made to people on benefits, to help cover the extra costs of Christmas’
‘That’s not something we do here’
Me: Universal Credit is a shambles, it surely couldn’t get worse
Tories: Hold my eggnog https://t.co/gsTOm0pZ3N
— Connor Moon (@CJMoon_) December 5, 2018
It’s unclear just how much lower the DWP can sink. But it probably can. So watch out in 2019 for it sanctioning claimants for having the audacity to celebrate Christmas at all.
Featured image via Mike Licht – Flickr and UK government – Wikimedia
