As temperatures drop we should check if we can expect a £25 Cold Weather Payment from the government

The freezing temperatures recently mean many of us could be in line for the government’s Cold Weather Payment.

It’s a £25 payment to help those of us on Universal Credit or certain other benefits to pay our energy bills. It’s paid in places where the temperature is below freezing for seven days.

Temperatures have now dropped enough in certain areas for people living there to get the cash.

If we qualify, we don’t have to do anything. We’ll get the £25 payment automatically within 14 days of our postcode area qualifying.

If it’s cold enough for long enough, we can get more than one payment. The scheme runs until March 2023.

If we’ve been feeling the chill and we think we might qualify, it’s easy to check. We just have to put our postcode into the DWP website.

If we’re in Scotland it’s a bit different. There’s a new scheme called the Winter Heating Payment and if we qualified for Cold Weather Payments in the past we should still be eligible.

It’s a one-off £50 payment and we don’t have to do anything to get it. It doesn’t depend on how cold it gets, if we qualify we’ll get it automatically.

But the payments won’t start hitting our accounts until February 2023.

If we need urgent support paying our bills before then, we should speak to our supplier in the first instance. We can also get in touch with the Home Heating Advice service (Scotland only).

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