The Department for Work and Pensions has confirmed when Universal Credit claimants will receive Christmas payments this week.

With Christmas fast approaching, people will be starting to budget for the most expensive period of the year.

Due to the recent £20 cut to Universal Credit benefits, claimants will be keen to know when they will be paid so that they can budget.

Glasgow Times: Universal Credit £20 uplift ended in October. (PA)Universal Credit £20 uplift ended in October. (PA)

Universal Credit Christmas payments 2021

The Christmas holiday includes a number for Bank Holiday which can affect when payments will be dropping into their bank accounts.

Universal Credit is paid to claimant via monthly payments but if that payment date falls on a Bank Holiday then the payments will be made earlier.

Christmas Day 2021 falls on a Saturday while Boxing Day lands on a Sunday meaning Monday, 27 December and Tuesday, 28 December will be official Bank Holidays.

The Government website explains that if the usual payment date falls on a Bank Holiday then claimants will receive payments on the Friday before.

This means Universal Credit claimants can expect to receive their December payment on Christmas Eve.

If claimants are due to receive a payment on January 3, then they will receive the payment on December 31- New Year’s Eve.

Sir Keir Starmer hits out at Universal Credit cut

Glasgow Times: Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would do away with Universal Credit altogether. (PA)Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would do away with Universal Credit altogether. (PA)

With higher energy bills and colder weather, it’s set to be a difficult winter for many in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer said Labour would do away with Universal Credit altogether – but if he was in No 10 he would keep the £20 uplift until the system was overhauled, and would pay for it by eliminating “waste”.

Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Labour leader said: “What we would do in the long term is actually replace Universal Credit, because one of the problems with the system we’ve got at the moment is that it traps people in poverty.”

Pushed on whether that meant the uplift would stay under Labour until the system was replaced, he said: “It would stay, we wouldn’t make the cut, we would then replace it with something better.”

He accused the Government of “effectively turning on the poorest in our society” over the scrapping of the Universal Credit uplift and said families “desperately need that uplift in Universal Credit to make ends meet”.

“And it comes, this cut, at the worst possible time because prices are going up,” he said.

“Whether that’s fuel or food, or energy prices, and this is going to drive families and children into poverty, and for the Government to turn on the poorest as we come out of the pandemic is just so wrong.”