Managing your money and benefits over the winter holidays

Winter and the Christmas period can be a challenging time after a cancer diagnosis, especially if you are being impacted financially.

With many services closed over the holidays, you may be wondering who to contact if you have concerns about your finances.

We are here to help you find out about winter payments and changes to payment dates, as well as what to do in a financial crisis, and how to access help with those extra seasonal costs, gifts and treats.

Winter and Christmas benefits

Depending on your age, income and any benefits you are receiving, you may be entitled to additional payments in the winter. They are designed to help keep you warm and comfortable over the colder months and Christmas.

Winter Fuel Payment

If you were born on or before the 21 September 1959, regardless of your health, you are eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment.

This is a one-off payment of between £100 and £300, sent automatically to those eligible in November or December. If you think you should have received the Winter Fuel Payment, you can check how to claim it.

If your annual income is over £35,000, your Winter Fuel Payment will actually be taken back again, either through your Self Assessment tax return for that year, or through a change in your tax code.

Cold Weather Payment

If the average temperature in your area is (or is forecast to be) at or below zero degrees Celsius for a whole week, and you're receiving one of these benefits, you will automatically receive a Cold Weather Payment of £25 for that week.

Cold Weather Payments are not available in Scotland. However, you might be eligible for the Scottish annual Winter Heating Payment instead. If so, you will receive it automatically in December.

The Christmas Bonus

Some benefits come with a Christmas Bonus. This is a one-off, tax-free payment of £10.

You don't need to do anything to claim it; if you are eligible, it will be paid automatically to you in early December.

You can find the list of benefits that offer The Christmas Bonus and eligibility criteria here.

How Christmas and New Year can affect benefit and income payments

Generally, when bank holidays or seasonal disruptions would affect the payment date of benefits or income, you will be paid earlier than the normal date.

For example, many employers pay December wages earlier than usual – partly as payroll staff may be away by the usual payment date; partly to help out employees with their Christmas shopping!

While this may feel like a blessing, it can cause challenges with budgeting, and can even affect Universal Credit payments.

Budgeting over the Christmas period

If finances are tight, the holiday period can be especially hard. For example, you might:

• have additional expenses for holiday celebrations, including the cost of food, presents and travel
• be more likely to spend money on activities if you aren't working
• have higher energy bills as a result of powering the heating, festive lights, and even cooking a turkey!

What's more, you might find you have a bigger gap between paydays than usual, since your December income may be paid early and January is a 31-day month.

As a result, your December pay packet may have to last you up to 6 weeks, so it can be easy to get caught out.

Universal Credit

If you or your partner are in work and you receive Universal Credit, an earlier December payday could affect your UC payment.

this can be a time of year when UC’s fixed approach to assessing income each month could mean a big change in your normal payment. 

That could mean that you might receive two lots of monthly salary in the same UC monthly assessment period with the result that your UC payment goes right down or even stops altogether in the run up to Christmas. If you come off UC you will need to do a “rapid reclaim” to restart a calculation and payment next time.  

That involves logging into your online UC account and doing a reclaim – all the data from your previous claim will still be there so it is really just confirming all of this still stands and away you go. However, annoyingly this reset can remove all messages and journal entries, so it is worth taking screenshots or copying and pasting.

See Citizens Advice Re-apply for UC for more details. But note the reference to Live Service UC is out of date; all UC claimants now come under Full Service UC.

For specific details on dates  - and some other Christmas budgeting tips - see the Mumsnet page here 

.

Money when awaiting first payments 

If you have only just made a claim for means tested benefits any and you can’t manage until the first payday then you can ring the office dealing with your claim and ask for a Short Term Benefits Advance . Find out more at Get an Advance on your first benefits payment

The need for one can be more common with Universal Credit (UC), as there is a routine wait of five weeks until your first payment. Under some pressure, arrangements for  UC Advance Payments were considerably improved:

• there is now more publicity about their availability and less restrictions on when you can apply for one them - for more detail on UC advances, see UC Get an Advance Payment
• you can now  have a payment for up to 100% of your anticipated first UC payment, rather than the old 50%. However, you don’t have to ask for the full amount if you hope you can manage with a bit less. You can go back again if you find you need more up to that maximum 100%
• you may have some other help in this time from other benefits – such as ESA or from the 2 week run on of any previous Housing Benefit claim  

Advance Payments can also be taken out if you are struggling ahead of a known increase in your existing UC claim coming up e.g. a new child is on the way (or is awarded DLA)  or the addition of a “limited capability” or “carer’s" element will be due next month.

The reason to be cautious is that Advance Payments (APs) are loans, even if interest free ones. They will then be recovered at 15% of your Standard Allowance – i.e. the amount for being you (as a single person or a couple) rather than of the whole potential UC. So, while APs can help avoid real crisis in the wait for a payment or increase, they will need repaying, leaving you below the UC “poverty line” for up to 12 months

Ideally, the first ordinary payment of UC needs bringing forward; it could be done technically, but it doesn't fit the way UC is intended to work. You can opt for more frequent payments after the first month as a matter of choice in Scotland and NI and at the discretion of the DWP in England and Wales.

.

Benefit Sanctions

It would be a cruel and unusual punishment to be hit by a benefits sanction at this time of year - and the evidence that sanctions actually do what they are intended to do is limited. If one does come your way do challenge it as:

• it may be totally unfair and trigger happy and the success rate to reverse sanctions is high
• accepting a sanction and taking it on the chine could mean that any future sanction is more severe.
• and under UC, the severe hardship payment - to tide you over during a sanction and ideally until it can be reversed  - is not just a reduced payment of the amount lost (as it is under the “legacy benefits”) -  but is a loan under UC

.

.

Contacting benefit agencies over mid-winter

There will be days of normal service in those in-between dog-days of turkey curries, leftover nut roasts and inventive things to do with sprouts. You can click the links to see details for:

• Christmas and New year opening times at Jobcentre Plus (who do “working age” benefits) 
• general contact details for the Pension Service (for pension age benefits such as State Retirement Pension and Pension Credit) . there are no special seasonal times, just that lines are closed on bank holidays
• similarly for the Disability and Carers Service
• and HMRC benefits – general details for tax credits and Child Benefit  . Lines will be closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day 
• for Housing Benefit and Council Tax Support check with your local council website. 

Grants that can help

Turn2Us Response Fund

This is a newer fund offering one off grants in situations where people face have had a life-changing event in the last 12 months ad have a need for support.  Payments can be made for specific items or to help with short spells of living costs. For more details click on The Turn2Us Response Fund

As with Macmillan Grants, they need a third-party application via approved third parties, which include your local - and online - Maggie’s Benefits Advisor.

We will need to do a benefits check first and Turn2Us will need a recent bank statement to evidence you meet the financial criteria of a low income. The last date for applications before the new year is 19th December, but later applications may not be processed until the New Year

.

Help with Christmas gifts and treats

Under financial pressure the first thing to go from pared down budgets may be luxuries and treats. But now and again these can make a real difference at special times. There is a range of other charities offering different sorts of special days and breaks and gifts. You can find more details and links on our Maggie’s Cancer Links page : Gifts, Treats and Experiences

Ellie's Friends and Something to Look Forward To

Both are sites where you can make kind offers of gifts, services and experiences and search for these in your area

.

Other special days and breaks include:

• the Willow Foundation for 16 to 40 year olds
• if sailing sounds fun, the Ellen Macarthur Cancer Trust offers days for 8 to 24 year olds 
• Paul's Place offers respite breaks for young adults and their families in N. Devon
• Live Better with Cancer offers tip, links and products suited to the needs of people living with cancer 

The Grove Hotel in Bournemouth also offers non-profit making hotel breaks for those affected by cancer.

.

Getting advice during the break 

.

Citizens Advice

Detailed online information on a whole range of practical topics is available from their homepage 

You can also check the opening times and details of your local Citizens Advice office and how the telephone advice service operates in your area, by entering details in the postcode checker on that page. There will though naturally be limited opening hours over the break. You will be directed to separate pages for Scotland (to find a local service) and N.Ireland (for both local services and online information).

.

Macmillan and Tenovus

Again, there is a lot of useful information on their website, a postcode checker for local services and a national support line on 0808 808 00 00.  Once again interactive telephone or face to face support may have restricted hours over the break. For more details see Macmillan Cancer Support. A similar range of information, advice line and local support operates in wales at Tenovus Cancer Care

.

.

Crisis time

What if something goes wrong leaving you penniless, foodless or without power? Emergency support is available through a variety of sources:

.

Your local social services:

Check links for your local council - that would be the 2nd-tier or county councils in two-tier areas of England. There will be some emergency cover and it may be that your medical team can help you access any urgent support you may need. This may be mainly in terms of any support services, but can include small grants in respect of children.

.    

Food banks

These can provide food boxes, usually with around 3 days supplies for a family. They are run by local charities, churches and volunteers and depend on public donations of goods, money and time. They are wonderful, kind and non-judgemental people who would so wish not to be needed in such growing numbers.

You will need a third party referral from someone such as social services, housing, citizens advice, your clinical teams and local Jobcentre etc to access them.

You can find your nearest foodbank at the Trussell Trust website.

.

Fuel and water:

Power supply issues:

The network take a strain over this time of heavy usage and sometimes wild weather, so the power can go down. It’s worth keeping the number to hand for your area to report any supply failures.

If you have an urgent need for power to run essential medical equipment at home, they can prioritise getting your power back or may be able to offer some back-up power supply . It is though worth keeping batteries, or medical equipment well charged

.    

Worries about paying for power and water.

If you use tokens and keys on a pre-pay meter, might it be worth laying up some spares in case your usual shop is shut?

Debt issues threatening your supply can be sorted in the New Year. Just stress you are a vulnerable customer and will be seeking budgeting advice so as to be able to make sustainable and realistic repayment offers. Longer term, it is worth checking out the Warm Homes Discounts scheme which most but not all suppliers operate for vulnerable people on a low income. These offer a reduced rate and replace the former social tariffs.

If you are on a water meter, check with your supplier for schemes that cap bills for those whose health conditions - including some cancers - that  mean they have to use more water. For more details of help with water bills see the Citizens Advice page 

The safety net of last resort used to be crisis help from the former discretionary Social Fund which offered

• >span cache="text-decoration:underline;" data-redactor-span="true" data-redactor-style-cache="color:rgb(155,187,89);"

The safety net of last resort used to be crisis help from the former discretionary Social Fund which offered

Both kinds of help - and in some cases the actual names - are replicated in the replacement schemes that operate at a national levels in Scotland, Wales and N.Ireland and at a local council level in England:

In all cases, your application will be helped if you can get a third party – such as social services, housing, your cancer team or an advice agency involved in supporting your application

.    

Christmas charities

Lots of local charities, churches and charities will be making an extra effort to reach out at Christmas, from  famous national ones such as Crisis and the Salvation Army, right down to small local ones.

Offers might involve: gatherings, meals, companionship and practical support, such as advice and referrals to food banks

.

Need a listening ear?

Sometimes it can be a difficult time when fun and fellowship are almost compulsory, but loneliness, bad times on cancer journeys or missing absent friends can kick in.

.

Where is the….?

….20ml syringe, feed clamp, tablets (iPad or medical) , remote control, bottle opener?

It is worth preparing your stash of essentials – safe from roaming visitors - just to cover you over days when your local pharmacy / wine merchant may be closed

We hope though that you find some warmth and strength to help with whatever challenges you are having to endure. May you find some love, light and peace over these weeks.