Cold Weather Payments begin Nov 1 with £25 per seven days

Cold Weather Payments will become available from November 1 for eligible households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, offering a £25 top-up for each seven-day period when local temperatures are recorded or forecast to be at or below 0C, the Department for Work and Pensions said. The scheme runs annually from November through March and is intended to help households on certain benefits meet higher heating and energy costs during prolonged cold spells.

Last winter more than 1.4 million Cold Weather Payments were issued across England and Wales, totaling about £35 million, an increase of roughly 220,000 payments compared with the previous winter. Payments are triggered when the seven-day average temperature at the Met Office weather station serving a residential postcode is recorded or forecast to be zero degrees Celsius or lower. The Met Office uses daily averages from the previous seven days to produce a single seven-day average and also issues forecasts for the coming week.

If a postcode is triggered, the £25 payment is paid automatically into the same account used for other benefits and should arrive within 14 days, officials said. The DWP maintains an updated list on its...