I was both charmed and delighted today to receive a heart warming letter from a DWP correspondent enigmatically named Office Manager, bringing glad tidings of good cheer. I have been elevated to join the righteous who have received the kind benevolence of our saintly Secretary of State to the munificent sum of £10.
But do not get carried way, I say to myself. The letter starts with a mere grudging admission that I am entitled to the £10. The rest of the letter is an essay in suggesting ways that I might not be a worthy recipient of this or any other benefit. Thank you IDS. Next year if the small token cannot be given with any good will then I will happily forego the benefice.
As I do have it, I might as well put the amount towards a decent bottle of Malbec and drink to his demise at the next cabinet reshuffle.
Perhaps we can all join in the heartfelt toast to an IDS free cabinet for the new year. Obviously I will use my magnificent Christmas gift of £10 as part payment towards the purchase of a fine bottle of Burgundy or Bordeaux.
I received my £10.00 last week with ref to DLA, I have just checked my bank and have had my ESA plus £10.00 paid in overnight. Not sure I can face the hassle of calling to tell them of their error but I’ll only spend the next six months checking my balance to see if they’ve discovered their overpayment. Anyone know the phone number so I don’t have to get all my paperwork out.
Oh dear. I do hope you both get away with it, as the hassle of telling them is probably horrendous.
It is reassuring to know that the DWP software has been so well programmed that it cannot detect two identical payments to the same recipient. As in the Monopoly game it should stay a bank error in your favour. They make a mistake and the onus is on you to put it right. DWP - rip it up and start again.
I think someone’s had mine!!! Just checked my bank account, ESA paid as normal, DLA paid as normal, no extra £10!!
How do I pay for Christmas now?
I was going to either blow it all on wine, or, alternatively, buy a turkey, vegetables, all the trimmings and have enough left for a small pudding. Now what???
Luckily, my husbands £10 has arrived with his Carers allowance. Without that we’d be in trouble this Xmas!
I rang this morning the lady I spoke to didn’t know what to do so she said she would get someone to ring me back. The person who rang me back said it shouldn’t have happened, thanks for letting them know but they wouldn’t be doing anything about it.
Merry Christmas.
Jan x
Sue I’m sure you will get yours soon, my DLA bonus came as a separate payment x
Sad thing is there are people in this country thar don’t have a tenner or food or heat I wonder if ids or his cronies have been to see a food bank do they care ? No
LOL, this 10.00 bonus is not new its been going on for years
A Christmas Bonus of £10 is paid to the recipients of long term benefit in the United Kingdom.
This was established by the Pensioners and Family Income Supplement Payments Act 1972 as a one off payment which was repeated by the Heath government in 1973 and 1974. It was then repeated by the Labour Government in 1977 and 1978. The subsequent Pensioners’ Payments and Social Security Act of 1979 established it permanently, although the amount has never been uprated.
I have had mine every year now since I went on DLA in 2007. Anyone on DLA gets it regardless of illness and quite a few benefits.
Sadly it has nothing to do with IDS.
The weirdest thing is its been 10.00 now for 42 years. I expect in 1972 it was a lot of money, now well it seems a trivial amount but its still a bonus.
Personally I think i would prefer the 10.00 to be spent on the NHS the amount it costs to send this money out to everyone it comes into the millions. It could do more good given back into the NHS in my humble opinion.
I finally got fed up at the thought that I was missing my sprouts money and decided to phone the DWP to ask ‘where, oh where is my princely Christmas bonus?’ I was eventually treated to an answer machine message that the payment will be made between the 14th and 21st January 2016 ‘at the latest’!!
So that’s that.
I’ll spend it on special diet food instead of Christmas fodder as the diet shall begin (sort of) on the 2nd January (depending on whether we’ve eaten all the chocolate, mince pies, cake and puddings by then)!
Sue (only interested in Xmas for the food and special wine!) x
I am intrigued by the ‘special’ wine. Is it a fine DWP vintage or Chateau IDS, by any chance? I shall be drinking PIP Prosecco with my vegetarian chestnut hot pot.
Well it was going to be a very fine bottle of Bollinger, followed by a premier cru Chablis, but now that I have no bonus money, I shall perhaps see if there is a bottle of maybe Shiraz or vin de pays to be had for about £4.99 from Aldi.
But then we still have my husbands bonus (smug ain’t in it) so we may stretch to Prosecco ourselves. Hurrah!
In my opinion, the £10 bonus seems to mean very little to most recipients these days and I’m noting the comment by Goldengirl above, that the bonus has remained at the same level since 1972, when it was really worth having. It must cost us (ie the country as a whole) an absolute fortune to pay out. Why do we retain it?
Surely in these difficult days of PIP, universal credit, ESA, Tax Credits, Housing Benefit and all the other contentious benefits, we should be campaigning to scrap the Xmas bonus. Not even the DWP take it seriously. It’s of no practical use as a Christmas bonus if they don’t pay it until the middle of January, even to families who really need every extra £10 at Christmas.
On that serious note, it would be interesting to find out the admin costs involved. Every recipient receives the desultory letter which means the printing and posting costs must be substantial. Even with automation, assuming that machines fold and place the letters in the envelopes, it still has to managed by a number of individuals. I wonder what the admin costs are per recipient as a percentage of the £10 received. Rather high I would think.
As the payment is enshrined in law, thank you Goldengirl63 for the historical context, it will no doubt continue. Any government that repeals the law will be accused of further persecution of the disabled and, in particular, pensioners. All governments are acutely aware of the importance of the grey vote. Benefit scroungers, like me, don’t count.
Yeh I believe in 1972, £10.00 was a huge amount of money for some people. I dont think when i started my first job in 1967 I earnt about £80.00 a month before tax lol… so 10.00 for me would be huge.
Now its piddly amount. I agree Sue it should either be scrapped and the money sent backwards into the benefits pot, or some how increased, but then it would take money out of another benefit issue.
When you think there is about 20,300,000 people in the UK on benefits who can get this bonus…YIKES, how much that is costing the Government, that is without the administration costs involved too.
Double yikes.
Perhaps the governments should ask the people on benefits what they should do about the bonus lol, oops silly me i can imagine some of the answers, but seriously it is such a waste of valuable money, when all that money could go to give disabled or people on benefits a better amount of money in the first place.
Perhaps we should all migrate to Ireland, as they receive their first christmas bonus this year…