The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) annual £10 Christmas bonus payment for pensioners and those on benefits began as a one-off payment to help during inflation in 1972.

Since then, it has become a recurring feather in the bank accounts of people on certain benefits — state pensioners included.

However, despite the enormous economic changes of the past five decades, this payment remains the same amount as it has always been, not rising in line with inflation and living costs.

When it…