More than eight million households will receive the first of two payments totaling £650 from Thursday to ease pressure on the cost of living.
A first tranche of £326 will be paid to low-income households from July 14, the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) previously announced.
The second payment of £324 will follow in the autumn.
People may be entitled to the £650 in two lump sums if they receive certain aid, such as: Universal creditmeans-tested jobseeker’s allowance (JSA), means-tested employment and support allowance (ESA), income support, pension credit, child tax Credit or workload credit.
Those who qualify are paid automatically, so they don’t need to apply, and payments can show up on bills as “DWP Cost of Living”.
The DWP and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have established who are eligible for living expenses.
Many people receive the first installment between July 14 and 31, although for those who receive tax credits, the first payment should be made from the fall and the second from winter 2022.
Retirees will also receive an extra £300 this winter to cover rising energy costs, while those on disability benefits will receive an additional £150 in September.
From October, households will also be charged £400 from their energy bills.
People may also see an income boost in their pay packages this month as national insurance (NI) starting thresholds have risen from £9,880 to £12,570 from 6 July.
However, this was after a 1.25 percentage point increase in NI in April, to help pay for health and social care.
Households have been warned that energy bills will rise further in the coming months.
Experts at Cornwall Insight said the bills could rise from a current record high of £1,971 to £3,245 in October and then further to £3,364 early next year.
The forecasts are based on what an average household spends on gas and electricity in a year. A household that buys more energy can get higher bills.
according to recent Bureau of National Statistics (ONS) figures on adults in Britain between late June and early July, about nine in 10 (91%) said their cost of living had risen in the past month.
About half (49%) of people said they bought less food when shopping and 48% said they had to spend more than usual to get what they normally buy.
The vast majority of those surveyed had taken at least one action to save energy in the past year.
It’s not enough to bring people back to where they were before price hikes
Sarah Coles, senior personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the cost of living payments are “an essential step in the right direction for those on lower incomes”.
But she added, “It’s not enough to bring people back to where they were before price hikes.”
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said last week that geopolitical tensions, rising energy costs and prolonged pressures on the country’s finances from an aging population “present a challenging outlook for these and future governments as they steer public finances through inevitable future shocks.” ”.
The OBR said: “Many threats remain, with rising inflation potentially pushing the economy into recession, lingering uncertainty over our future trade relationship with the EU, a resurgence of Covid cases, a changing global climate and rising interest rates that all linger. the fiscal outlook.”
People can find out more about cost of living at costoflivingsupport.campaign.gov.uk.