cold weather payment

Twinkly

Just curious to know if anyone here is on Incapacity benefit and has ever claimed or received a cold weather payment ? Having done a few sums I am pretty sure I get less now than if i claimed Income Support so if its means tested then should I be entitled ? Or at least put in a manual claim somehow ? Advice pleeease

Enlightenment

I'm on long term Incapacity Benefit and have received one payment so far, it's automatic.

COUSCOUS_3

even on income support you are unable to get cold weather payments unless you have a child under 5 or receive certain disability premiums.

Enlightenment

I believe it's the Income Support though that allows you the CWP, as I get IS too.

Twinkly

Enlightenment wrote: »

I'm on long term Incapacity Benefit and have received one payment so far, it's automatic.

I have been on long-term IB for 11 years and never received a single payment in that time so I have to query that it is automatic. How much did you receive ? I am thinking that perhaps you received the additional £60 payable to anyone who receives the £10 Christmas Bonus as this is paid automatically.

richard9991

Twinkly wrote: »

Just curious to know if anyone here is on Incapacity benefit and has ever claimed or received a cold weather payment ? Having done a few sums I am pretty sure I get less now than if i claimed Income Support so if its means tested then should I be entitled ? Or at least put in a manual claim somehow ? Advice pleeease

if you are below is level then you need to claim is to get cwp

Enlightenment

Twinkly wrote: »

I have been on long-term IB for 11 years and never received a single payment in that time so I have to query that it is automatic. How much did you receive ? I am thinking that perhaps you received the additional £60 payable to anyone who receives the £10 Christmas Bonus as this is paid automatically.

I have received the Christmas bonus of £10, plus £25 CWP so far. As I said I think it's the IS that entitles you to it rather than IB. Both times have been paid into my bank automatically, but I did receive letters before hand.

grumpytoo

nanokitten wrote: »

I tried my best to read the legislation but its not very helpful:

the average temperature at you assigned local weather station must be zero or predicted to be zero for 7 consecutive days.
It does not make it clear how they calculate the average but an average of the max and min temp for a day is probably a good estimate.

Having said all that it doesn't really matter as you get a letter when you qualify and it happens automatically.

See this which is quoted from a government webpage:-

‘Very cold weather’
Payments will be made when the average temperature for where you live is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days.

Now we all know that the government is strapped for cash but allegedly they have prevailed on the Meteorological Office to give false weather-forecasts stating that it would be less cold than it actually was going to be. In spite of bitter weather that froze the canal it looks as if my area will only get one CWP. Although I have a letter dated December 4th 2010 promising that £25 will be paid "in the next few days" no monies have been received at the time of writing on the 18th February. When I phoned the DWP - the Jobcentre division actually - in order to speak to a real person something very strange happened. As soon as the words "Cold Weather Payment" were mentioned I was instantly cut-off so it looks as if these payments may have been cancelled. It would be interesting to compare the grand totals of CWPs to the grand totals of bankers bonuses. Has anyone got the figures?:(