Cash payments worth £301 are being given to more than eight million households from this week.

Extra financial help is being allocated to those deemed to be struggling most with ongoing rising costs - so who is likely to be in line for the money?

Help for eight million homes

Millions of cash-strapped households are being given extra money from the government this spring.

The £301 is known as a cost of living payment - which won't need to be paid back and is tax free.

It is one of three payments totalling £900 that will be sent to millions of UK families over the next 12 months to help them meet their daily living costs, which continue to spiral in the face of rising inflation.

The additional two payments – which will each be of a similar value to the first – are planned for release later this autumn and then again in early 2024.

Anyone currently eligible for the money will get their first payment of £301 between Tuesday, April 25 and Wednesday, May 17.

A decision to give millions of people extra cash to try and keep their heads above water, follows a £650 cost of living support payment that was made in two parts to over eight million people in 2022.

Who can claim?

The money is being given to those on means-tested benefits to give them – as described by the government – a ‘financial boost’.

People who qualify for the first upcoming cost of living support payment will already be claiming one of the following benefits:

* Universal Credit

* Income-based Jobseekers Allowance

* Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

* Income Support

* Working Tax Credit

* Child Tax Credit

* Pension Credit

To get the money, you also need to have been entitled to a payment from one of the above benefits between January 26 and February 25.

Claimants eligible for the £301 solely through tax credits, and not through DWP means-tested benefits, will get their money instead from HMRC shortly after the DWP payments begin filtering through.

How to claim?

Those who have been automatically identified as being entitled to extra money by officials, do not need to apply for the payment or do anything to receive it.

Instead, money will arrive with the payment reference DWP COLP, along with the claimant’s National Insurance number and be paid into the bank account you already receive your additional help through.

While the money will start trickling into people’s accounts from Tuesday, the payment window is being deliberately staggered over the next couple of weeks meaning not everyone entitled to the first £301 will receive it on Tuesday, or even this week.

It should arrive however, by May 17.

What about the disabled and elderly?

Further payments worth £150 for six million eligible disabled people and £300 for pensioners claiming winter fuel payments will also be sent out later this year, officials have confirmed, but exact payment dates have yet to be released.

The DWP has been encouraging low-income pensioners not already getting Pension Credit to check their eligibility, as they can still qualify for their extra Cost of Living Payments if they make a successful backdated Pension Credit application by May 19.

Mel Stride, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, said: “This latest additional payment will be welcomed by millions of families – as will further payments due over the next year.

“We have continually supported those most vulnerable to rising costs, including through record benefits and national living wage increases as well as these exceptional Cost of Living Payments responding to the global pressures we are facing.”