What is a cold weather payment, how much is it, and how can I get one?

It was what the Met Office deemed the country’s “first sensation of winter”. Everywhere, from London and Yorkshire to the bulk Scotland received snow, with temperatures dropping to their lowest - minus 7.8C - successful Tulloch Bridge, Scotland.

But what are the payments, and who is eligible?

Here, the PA quality bureau answers cardinal questions astir them. 

Cold upwind payments are made to susceptible people, including pensioners, successful England and Wales to assistance them wage for heating erstwhile the somesthesia dips beneath freezing.

Cold upwind payments spell to those surviving successful an country wherever the mean somesthesia is recorded as, oregon forecast to be, 0C oregon beneath for 7 consecutive days.

According to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), astir 10,000 radical successful 18 postcode areas tin expect their archetypal acold upwind outgo successful the coming weeks. Twelve of these postcodes are successful Cumbria, 4 successful Northumberland and 2 successful the Scottish borders which transverse into England.

People tin sojourn coldweatherpayments.dwp.gov.uk online to check.

Those eligible for acold upwind payments request to beryllium surviving successful a spot wherever the mean somesthesia oregon forecast is 0°C oregon beneath implicit 7 consecutive days.

You whitethorn get acold upwind payments if you’re receiving:

– income-based jobseeker’s allowance

– income-related employment and enactment allowance

– enactment for owe interest

People get £25 for each seven-day play of precise acold upwind betwixt November 1 and March 31 each year.

Those eligible bash not request to apply; it volition beryllium paid automatically.

The slope top-up volition beryllium successful eligible people’s slope accounts wrong 14 days of the trigger.

Cold upwind payments bash not impact different benefits.

Those successful infirmary should archer the Pension Service oregon Jobcentre Plus arsenic this could impact their payment.

Scots cannot get the payment.

In Scotland, radical connected benefits oregon debased incomes whitethorn suffice for an yearly £50 wintertime heating payment, though this is made irrespective of acold temperatures.

People are advised to archer the Pension Service oregon Jobcentre Plus.

Those getting cosmopolitan recognition should motion successful to their relationship and adhd a enactment to the journal.

According to foundation Turn2us, the DWP’s determination connected a person’s outgo claim can beryllium challenged.

If the determination stands, radical tin entreaty to an autarkic tribunal.

The clip limits are strict, with a one-month model to quality a decision.

People calved earlier September 26, 1956 who are eligible could get betwixt £250 and £600 to assistance wage their heating bills.

There is besides the lukewarm location discount scheme, successful which radical get £150 disconnected their energy measure implicit the winter.

A spokesperson said: “These further payments supply enactment each twelvemonth to assistance radical experiencing the coldest weather.

“Cold weather payments can beryllium triggered close done to the extremity of March, giving radical facing disproportionately acold upwind that other reassurance implicit the chillier months.”