Low-income households will receive the first instalment of the next set of cost-of-living payments between 25 April and 17 May, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) says.
Eight million means-tested benefits claimants including people on Universal Credit, Pension Credit and tax credits will eventually receive £900.
The first of three payments starting next month is worth £301.
The following two instalments will be paid in the autumn, then next spring.
All will be paid directly into eligible recipients’ bank accounts, without the need to make a claim.
The payment reference for bank accounts will be DWP COLP, along with the claimant’s National Insurance number.
In addition, during the summer, more than six million people with disabilities will get an extra £150. During next winter, over eight million pensioners will receive an extra £300.
It follows payments which were made last year.
Tax credit-only customers who are not eligible for a payment from the DWP will receive their payment from HMRC shortly after DWP payments begin.
The measures are part of a package of support to help people with the soaring cost of living, which is rising at a near-record pace. It comes as the £400 energy bill discount for all UK residents ends in April.
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said the cost-of-living payments would give a “financial boost” to the most vulnerable.
However, charities and poverty campaigners have said the payments do not go far enough to mitigate the effects of increasing prices.
“The government has been recycling funding announcements and generally this amount just mops around the edges of what people are really facing,” Stuart Bretherton from Fuel Poverty Action told the BBC.
“We want radical reform for energy pricing so that no-one falls below their minimal energy needs,” he said.