As the Minister with responsibility for cold weather payments, Helen has sought to reassure local people that those most in need will receive automatic cold weather payments.
Helen issued the following statement:
“In this cold weather, it is very important that people put their health first.
This is why the Government is making automatic cold weather payments to people receiving Pension Credit or Income Support and if they have a child under 5 or receive a disability premium.
In the North, cold weather payments have been triggered three times already, and in September the Government decided to increase payments from £8.50 per week to £25.
So far, the Government has paid £172 million in cold weather payments to 3.5 million households.
The money is paid within two weeks of being triggered, and should arrive before people receive their fuel bills, so people should not hesitate to turn up their heating.
The Government also has a number of long-term policies to cut fuel poverty and improve energy efficiency such as the excellent Warm Front scheme which benefits over 6,000 people in my constituency.
In addition, the Labour Government introduced Winter Fuel Payments and increased them significantly this year, and just yesterday the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change announced an initiative to give people grants of up to £400 to upgrade their boilers”.
For further details on cold weather payments, people should visit www.direct.gov.uk or contact www.dwp.gov.uk.
