Yorkshire Coast benefit claimants to receive second cost of living payment
The Government is handing out £324 by the 23rd of this month
Benefit claimants on the Yorkshire Coast are set to receive their second cost of living payments from today.
The Government is handing out £324 by the 23rd of this month.
Martin Hope, who is from Scarborough, gets the disability version of cash boost.
He will receive the money for the second time since its introduction back in September.
Martin said: "It sort of help a bit but because we had just moved in and British Gas were charging us £67 a month for gas, whereas now we're only having to pay £10 a month so I'm paying off the excess that I've got, we didn't really notice the benefit of it as much as anybody else would do.
"You can't knock the Government for trying to help. They're actually sitting up and taking notice unlike when it was really freezing cold in 2010/2011. We were on disability benefits and they were frozen. They also increased the amount of time from three days to be below zero to seven days before you got the extra payment for heating, so compared to then to now it's so much better.
"It'll help us fantastically because we're just changing onto pensions and different benefits because we're paying £50 a month back for advanced payment, so that will help to pay off the overdraft and keep us going until that payment's finished next year and then we're back to square one.
"The best thing the Government could do is be like the Isle of Man version of Ofgem, who've made power energies cut their bills because gas prices have gone down, so why can't Ofgem in this country do that? It's the most logical thing to do rather than the Government paying out money, they might as well turn around to the companies and say 'look, gas prices have come down. Why aren't you reducing the bills?'"