The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has said it will be paying claimants their £10 DWP Christmas bonus soon. However, the amount is worth barely anything anymore. Moreover, with the cost of things like a Christmas dinner having skyrocketed, it seems like the DWP is taking the piss paying the Christmas bonus in the first place.
The DWP Christmas bonus
As Devon Live reported, the government launched the Christmas bonus in 1972 for social security claimants. Despite successive governments keeping it, the amount given hasn’t changed since 1972. It doesn’t take an economist to work out this is a farce.
A quick input into the Bank of England’s inflation calculator shows that if governments had increased the Christmas bonus with inflation, it would now be worth at least £115. As This Is Money noted, back in 1972 the £10 Christmas bonus:
was enough to cover the cost of a turkey dinner for the whole family, with change leftover for presents.
In fact, it would probably have covered more than that – because, for example, the cost of a Christmas dinner was actually around £3.34 in 1972.
Now, analysis shows that the £10 the DWP will be bunging to millions of claimants in the next few days won’t even get you a turkey.
Like turkeys at Christmas
The Express did a breakdown of how much a basic Christmas dinner would cost at various supermarkets. It said that:
Analysis of prices from nine leading UK supermarkets shows the average cost of a fresh turkey will cost £28.65 this year, while the second-most expensive item on the plate – pigs in blankets – could set you back around £3.29.
The average cost of a full plate, which would include turkey, pigs in blankets, potatoes, gravy, stuffing, brussels sprouts, carrots, cranberry sauce, parsnips, Yorkshire puddings bread sauce, Christmas pudding and a six-pack of mince pies would set shoppers back an average of £50.06.
Your Money says the cost of a Christmas dinner has actually gone up more than inflation this year than compared to last – increasing by 2.8%. Even so, an inflation-tracked bonus of £115 would still have covered that.
DWP Christmas bonus: an insult to millions of us
However, the real sting in the tail with the DWP’s miserly Christmas bonus is what it should be worth compared to 1972, taking into account the standard inflation increase.
Back in 1972, the weekly state pension was just £6.75 – and it was pensioners that originally got the Christmas bonus. On that basis, if governments had kept the DWP Christmas bonus rising in line with the rate of the full state pension (currently £221.20), it would now be £327.70. That £327 could pay for a family’s entire Christmas – albeit modestly.
It feels like the government and DWP are mocking people with the £10 Christmas bonus. The department has cut some people’s social security by up to £13,000 across recent years. And yearly April increases have failed to make up for real-terms cuts across nearly a decade.
The department knows a DWP Christmas bonus £10 is taking the piss – and that most people won’t even notice the money. Yet it continues to pay it anyway. The Christmas bonus is a cruel joke – and the only ones laughing are those at the DWP.
