Pensioners will get extra £300 to help with rising energy costs this winter

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Pensioners will receive a one-off payment of £300 to help ease the cost of living crisis, the chancellor has announced. Rishi Sunak today unveiled an emergency package of supportive measures to tackle the impact of soaring inflation, which has reached a 40-year high.

Mr Sunak announced targetted support for pensioners, as well disabled people and those on benefits. He said a £300 payment will be made to all pensioner households towards the end of the year, alongside the winter fuel payment.

The measures comes at a cost of £2.5 billion, he told MPs in the House of Commons. In addition, Mr Sunak announced a one-off £650 payment for more than eight million low-income households on benefits, which will be paid in two instalments in July and autumn, and a £150 payment to anyone receiving disability benefits to be paid by September. READ MORE: EVERY UK household to receive £400 discount on energy bills Consumer Prices Index inflation rose to 9 per cent in April and consumers are braced for the energy price cap to rise by more than £800 to £2,800 in October as the squeeze on living standards continues.

The chancellor said high inflation "is causing acute distress to the people of this country" as he vowed that the government would "not sit idly by".