Brits on tax credits to get £500 one-off benefits payment, Rishi Sunak reveals in the Budget

BRITS who claim Working Tax Credits will get a one-off payment worth £500, Chancellor Rishi Sunak confirmed in today's budget.

The move echoes the extension to the £20 uplift in Universal Credit payments, designed to help with the ongoing affects the pandemic.

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The Chancellor said that because of the way that the Working Tax Credits system works, people will not be able to get the extra weekly £20.

Instead, everyone who gets the benefit will get a £500 one-off payment.

This is what happened last year, when working credit claimants received a one-off lump sum of £1,040.

This was just one of several big changes announced in today's budget.

The chancellor confirmed:

• Furlough will be extended for six months until the end of September - with employers coughing up contributions from July onwards
• Thousands more people will be brought into the self-employment help schemes
• A fourth self-employed grant of up to £7,500 and a fifth one will come over the summer
• Fuel duty will be frozen yet again in a huge win for The Sun's Keep It Down campaign
• The UK’s Covid vaccine rollout will receive a £1.65 billion boost
• Universal Credit's £20 a week boost will continue for another six months - while those on Working Tax Credits will get an extra £500 one off payment
• The National Living Wage will rise to £8.91 from April
• The VAT cut will be extended for another six months - and then it will go up to 12% for another six months after that
• Rishi pledged £2.8million for Britain's bid to host the 2030 world cup
• The Stamp Duty Holiday was extended for another three months in full - and will taper down for three months after that for properties up to £250,000
• A new mortgage guarantee scheme will offer 95 per cent loans to first-time buyers to get on the ladder
• He will freeze the income tax brackets, meaning Brits will no longer benefit from planned increases to the amount that can be earned tax-free
• The price of a pint will be be frozen as Rishi Sunak scraps alcohol duty rises
• Brits can get up to £1million as part of a £150million fund to rescue pubs and football clubs from closure
• Grant funding will be available to businesses in England through a new £5 billion Restart Grant scheme to help the high street
• A new freeport scheme will come in giving tax breaks for firms in eight areas of the country

Mr Sunak said: "To support low-income households, the Universal Credit uplift of £20 a week will continue for a further six months, well beyond the end of this national lockdown

"We’ll provide Working Tax Credit claimants with equivalent support for the next six months.

";Because of the way that system works operationally, we’ll need to do so with a one-off payment of £500."

Lots of people have been switched from Tax Credits to the newer Universal Credit system, which means they would already be getting the uplifts.

New benefits claimants are usually added to Universal Credit rather than Working Tax Credit - unless they are eligible for the severe disability premium.

But there are also plenty of people who are still on the old-style system, and the final deadline for being moved across has been pushed back to 2024.

Anyone who hasn't yet been transferred across will now be eligible for this new one-off payment.

The lump sum will be paid automatically so you don't need to do anything to get it.

You should receive it by mid-April via the same method that you usually get your tax credits paid.

If the payment doesn't arrive by the end of April, you can ask for help via the Treasury customer services helpline.

The budget documents also confirm that the government will continue
to treat Working Tax Credit claimants who have been furloughed, or experienced a temporary reduction in their working hours, as working their normal hours.

This allows these claimants to remain eligible for Working Tax Credit rather than losing the benefit because the pandemic has impacted their earnings.

Other changes to the benefits system include a six-month extension of the Universal Credit uplift which will give people an extra £20 per week.

The government has also confirmed that it will continue the suspension of the Minimum Income Floor (MIF) for self-employed Universal Credit claimants until the end of July 2021.

The MIF will be gradually reintroduced from August, but DWP work coaches will be given discretion to not apply it on an individual basis where they assess that claimants’ earnings continue to be affected by COVID-19 restrictions.

DWP is also changing the way it reclaims money from Universal Credit allowances.

From April 2021, the period over which Universal Credit advances are recovered will increase to 24 months and the maximum rate at which deductions can be made will reduce from 30% to 25% of the standard allowance.

These measures were previously due to be implemented from October 2021.

From June, care leavers up to the age of 25 and those under the age of 25 who have spent at least three months in a homeless hostel will be exempt from the SAR in Universal Credit and Housing Benefit, helping more vulnerable people to access suitable housing.

Universal Credit £20 a week boost extended for six months in today’s Budget.

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