MSE News: Cold weather payments - who qualifies?

lilyjoy

The disabled get no help at all.I'm at home all day,I can't have my heating on because we can't afford it.Hubby works,but we struggle to pay the bills as it is.My DLA goes on treatment and meds for me.It makes me wonder sometimes if hubby should just give up work to care for me full time.We'd be better off with all the benifts and top-ups we'd get!!! An extra £25 a week would be great.I could keep the heating on instead of sitting with a quilt round me....Rant over:mad:

A.Penny.Saved

The Cold Weather payment website says that my area has qualified for cold weather payments on two occasions recently. Once yesterday and the other on 1st November yet I did not receive that first payment.

I'm fairly sure that I qualify as have received such payments before and I don't think the recent changes have affected me.

So why the long delay in payment?

A.Penny.Saved

DX2 wrote: »

It can take up to 14 working days for a payment to hit your account, because of the amount of people eligible and the DWP having to do scans.

Thanks but it's been well over a month, 5 weeks since 1st November. I didn't expect yesterdays payment yet.

I think I will have to contact them as they do say to do that if a payment has not been received.

aandrea

I'm registered Disabled, and have received letter stating that i'm getting £10 towards heating. Yet checked on website and said that my area has had 2 cold spells. So how come, i only get £10? What about the £25 that other people who are on IS etc are getting. £10 wont even heat house for a day on this.

janbanan

Good to offer benefit towards energy bills to those who need it.... But wouldn't you need about the same energy to heat up your house if it was 1 degree as it would if was 0 degrees?

mitch161

flashnazia wrote: »

As if the country wasn't in enough debt...

and thats just on the 420 co-allition members of parliments their friends family's and dogs house mortgages lol through the expenses

lol jokes

A.Penny.Saved

aandrea wrote: »

I'm registered Disabled, and have received letter stating that i'm getting £10 towards heating. Yet checked on website and said that my area has had 2 cold spells. So how come, i only get £10? What about the £25 that other people who are on IS etc are getting. £10 wont even heat house for a day on this.

If £10 won't heat the house for a day, then how will £25 heat the house for a week? It's meant to help, not to pay for it entirely. The £10 is probably in addition to the cold weather payment.

DX2 wrote: »

Yes but was the CWP triggered on the 1st November, or 4th December. I would hazard a guess that 99.9% of CWP weren't triggered until the beginning of December, so you haven't actually had to wait 5 weeks for it.

Edit to add: Even though when checking my postcode it says:


There actually wasn't a trigger at all in November the two triggers have only been this week and last week.

Yes, it isn't very clear or precise. I did check it again and realised it didn't say ON those dates but between them.

DX2 wrote: »

Are you positive it's a cold weather payment and not actually a Christmas bonus. Cold weather payments = £25 per trigger Christmas Bonus = £10.

Christmas Bonus, Christmas Bonus. What the hell is a Christmas bonus and who qualifies for that? Is that to buy the kids presents?

janbanan wrote: »

Good to offer benefit towards energy bills to those who need it.... But wouldn't you need about the same energy to heat up your house if it was 1 degree as it would if was 0 degrees?

That was my thought exactly. It only pays out if it's been zero or below for an entire week. So if one day is bright and sunny with tropical temperatures but the rest -20C below no one gets a penny. Not really very effective but I suppose that administration would be a big issue if it was made more complex and adaptive.

JimmyTheWig

janbanan wrote: »

But wouldn't you need about the same energy to heat up your house if it was 1 degree as it would if was 0 degrees?

No, you'd need a whole "degree" more.
Not sure how best to explain this, but each degree colder it gets the more it costs to heat the house.

janbanan

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

No, you'd need a whole "degree" more.
Not sure how best to explain this, but each degree colder it gets the more it costs to heat the house.

Obviously... That's what I meant with "about".
What I meant was that I find the benefit a bit flawed in that you get no benefits at 1 degree, and full benefit at 0 degrees.

JimmyTheWig

I think it's a token gesture. They could come up with a sliding scale that paid out according to the temperature and the length of time, etc. They could come round and see how much direct sunlight you get on your windows. They could check the temperature on your street rather than use the figures for the town, or whatever they do.
But ultimately, it's a bonus for people who get it. There are millions of us who don't qualify for any of these benefits who are struggling just as much as those who do qualify.