Rishi Sunak has today (May 26) announced further cost of living support and you could be given hundreds of pounds.

The Chancellor has outlined government plans to help struggling UK families cope with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.

Sunak also confirmed a temporary windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

Who is eligible for the cost-of-living support package?

With energy bills set to soar in October, households in England, Scotland and Wales will receive a £400 payment to help with rising costs.

All households with a domestic electricity connection will be automatically eligible for the grant.

You won’t need to contact your energy company, the grant will be automatically applied to every household bill in October.

Direct debit and credit users will have the money credited to their account, while those with pre-payment meters will have the money applied to their meter or paid via a voucher.

It replaces the £200 loan announced by the Chancellor earlier this year and will not need to be repaid.

Mr Sunak said the one-off cost-of-living payment for around eight million most vulnerable households on means-tested benefits will be sent direct to their bank accounts.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will make the payment in two lump sums, the first from July, the second in autumn, with payments from HMRC for those on tax credits following shortly after.

The payments will be sent straight to people’s bank accounts.

Across all the support, almost all of the eight million most vulnerable households will in total receive at least £1,200, Mr Sunak said.

More than eight million pensioner households in receipt of winter fuel payments will be given an extra “pensioner cost-of-living payment” of £300.

Combined with an additional discount on energy bills, pensioners are at least £500 better off following Thursday’s announcement. They could receive a total of £850 in support this year, assuming they qualified for the council tax rebate announced earlier in 2022.

Mr Sunak stressed that pensioners were “disproportionately impacted” by higher energy costs due to being less likely to be able to top up their income through work, and faced higher energy costs from spending more time at home.

Those who receive non-means-tested disability benefits will recieve an extra one-off disability cost-of-living payment worth £150 from September.

Mr Sunak said many within this group will also receive the £650 payment, taking their total cost of living help to £800.

You do not need to fill out any extra forms to receive your payments, they will be paid via existing account set-ups.