Pensioners who receive the State Pension will be among the millions of people who receive it tax-free once next month.
The Christmas Bonus will be automatically paid by the DWP to anyone who is eligible to receive one of the 21 benefits during the relevant period.
This is a £10 payment, usually paid in the first full week of December.
The Christmas Bonus was established in the 1970s, but the payout has never been increased.
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According to the CPI inflation calculator, £10 in 1972, when the Christmas bonus was first introduced, is now worth £162.72.
Christmas bonuses may appear as DWP XB on the recipient’s bank statement.
The Christmas bonus does not affect any other benefits a person may receive.
Anyone who believes they are entitled to a Christmas bonus but has not received it in December should contact the Pension Service or the Jobcentre Plus office that handles benefit payments.
People receiving the National Pension are also eligible, but some pensioners do not receive a Christmas bonus every year.
This is because if you defer your state pension (delay your claim) and do not receive any of your other eligible benefits, you will not receive the Christmas bonus.
Who is eligible for the Christmas bonus?
To qualify for the Christmas Bonus, you must be present or ‘ordinarily resident’ in the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man or Gibraltar during the qualifying week (usually the first full week in December) there is.
To qualify, you must receive at least one of the following benefits during the qualifying week: these are:
- adult disability benefits
- payment for military independence
- Nursing care allowance
- Nursing care allowance
- Caregiver support payment
- child disability allowance
- Full-time allowance (paid based on workers’ compensation or wartime pension system)
- Contribution-based employment and support allowance (after entering the main phase of benefits after the first 13 weeks of application)
- Disabled living allowance
- Incapacity benefits at long-term interest rates
- Industrial death benefit (for widows or widowers)
- mobility supplements
- Pension Credit – Guarantee Element
- Personal Independence Payment (PIP)
- National pension (including retirement allowance)
- Severe disability allowance (transitional protection)
- Unemployment benefit or unemployment benefit (paid under the occupational injury or war pension scheme)
- Wartime disability pension at national pension age
- war widow pension
- widow allowance
- widow parents allowance
- widow pension
If you are a married couple, in a civil partnership or living together and both receive one of the eligible benefits, you will each receive a Christmas bonus.
The Government explains: “Even if your partner or private partner does not receive any of the eligible benefits, you can still receive the Christmas Bonus if both of the following apply:
- By the end of the applicable week, both of you will be over the national pension age.
- Your partner or private partner was also present (or ‘ordinarily resident’) in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, a European Economic Area (EEA) Member State or Switzerland during the Qualifying Week.
“One of the following must also apply:
- You are entitled to an increase in your partner or civil partner’s eligible benefits
- The only benefit you are entitled to is the pension credit. ”