By Charlotte Fisher,Courtney Eales
Copyright manchestereveningnews
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has confirmed benefit and pension pay dates for October. There are no bank holidays next month so payments should be made as normal. In the UK, one in three people are claiming some sort of DWP-administered benefits. According to figures from Policy in Practice, £23bn worth of benefits go unclaimed each year, reports the ECHO . Up to 24 million people were claiming a combination of DWP benefits as of February 2025, including 13.2 million of State Pension Age (including those in receipt of their State Pension), 10 million of working age and 800,000 under 16, and in receipt of DLA as a child. Data from January 2024 shows there were 6.4 million people on Universal Credit and 163,000 households were receiving the Universal Credit childcare element in November 2023. There were 3.9 million people on some sort of health-related benefit over 2023-24. Never miss a story with the MEN’s daily Catch Up newsletter – get it in your inbox by signing up here The DWP payment dates for next month are below, they should be routine as there are no bank holidays this month. You can find further information about your benefits via Gov.uk and other support that may be available to you. In October, benefit payment dates will be going out as normal as there are no bank holidays that can cause a schedule change. Benefits that will be sent out this month include: Pension payment dates in October Pension payments are paid straight into bank accounts. This is usually paid every four weeks, and the exact date you receive it will correspond to the last two digits of National Insurance (NI) numbers. Here is when you could be paid into your account, based on those numbers: It comes after benefits rates were increased in April by 1.7 per cent, in line with inflation. Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE Under the triple lock promise, the state pension increases by whichever is highest out of inflation, wages based on average growth between May and July, or 2.5 per cent. This year it rose by 4.1 per cent in line with average earnings growth.
