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Cold Weather Payments for Winter 2017-2018

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Cold Weather Payments for Winter 2017-2018 BRIEFING PAPER Number 8254, 30 April 2018 Cold Weather Payments By Steven Kennedy & David Foster for winter 2017-2018 Inside: 1. Cold Weather Payments: a short introduction 2. Expenditure on Cold Weather Payments www.parliament.uk/commons-library | intranet.parliament.uk/commons-library | [email protected] | @commonslibrary Number 8254, 30 April 2018 2 Contents Summary 3 1. Cold Weather Payments: a short introduction 4 1.1 When are payments triggered? 4 1.2 Which benefit claimants are eligible? 5 1.3 How are payments made? 6 1.4 Devolution of Cold Weather Payments to Scotland 6 The Scottish Government’s approach 7 2. Expenditure on Cold Weather Payments 8 2.1 2017-18 winter 8 Appendix: Cold Weather Payment areas and weather stations for 2017-18 9 Cover page image copyright: Radiator2 – no copyright required 3 Cold Weather Payments for winter 2017-2018 Summary Cold Weather Payments are made from the Social Fund to certain recipients of Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit or Pension Credit during periods of very cold weather. To “trigger” the payments, the average temperature at a specified weather station must be recorded as, or forecast to be, 0°C or below for seven consecutive days. The scheme runs from 1 November to 31 March each year. The payment is a fixed amount for each week of cold weather. For many years this was set at £8.50 a week but the Labour Government increased the rate to £25 a week as a temporary measure for winters 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. In 2010, the Coalition Government made the £25 rate permanent. Payments are made automatically to those entitled to them; there should be no need to make a claim. People who think they may be entitled but do not receive a payment should contact Jobcentre Plus, the Universal Credit helpline, or a pension centre. In the four winters preceding the 2017-18 winter (2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17), relatively mild weather meant that far fewer Cold Weather Payments were made compared with previous years. Winter 2013-14 was exceptionally mild; payments “triggered” in one area only in one week, resulting in expenditure of £27,500. The highest annual expenditure during this period was £10.6 million in 2014-15; between 2008-09 and 2012-13, by comparison, annual expenditure never fell below £129 million. Winter 2017-18 was colder than the four winters preceding it and this resulted in a greater number of Cold Weather Payments. Over the winter, there were 140 “triggers”, resulting in an estimated 4.75 million payments and estimated expenditure of £118.7 million. The impact of the spell of cold weather at the end of February and into March 2018 can be clearly seen; between 17 February and 9 March there were 90 triggers, which resulted in an estimated 3.9 million payments and estimated expenditure of £98.2 million. Further background on the Cold Weather Payments scheme can be found in Library Briefing Paper SN/SP/696, Cold Weather Payments. Information is also available at GOV.UK, and the DWP has a series of Frequently Asked Questions on Cold Weather Payments. There is also a search facility showing when payments have been triggered at particular postcodes. Cold Weather Payments are entirely separate from both the Winter Fuel Payments scheme and the annual “Christmas Bonus” paid to pensioners and claimants of certain other benefits. This briefing covers the Cold Weather Payments scheme in Great Britain. A separate but equivalent scheme exists in Northern Ireland. Cold Weather Payments, together with the other benefits which comprise the regulated Social Fund – Winter Fuel Payments, Funeral Payments and the Sure Start Maternity Grant – were devolved to the Scottish Government under the Scotland Act 2016. More information regarding the new powers and information on how the Scottish Government intends to use the powers is available in section 1.4 of the briefing. Number 8254, 30 April 2018 4 1. Cold Weather Payments: a short introduction Cold Weather Payments are a fixed payment of £25 made from the Social Fund to certain benefit claimants during periods of cold weather. The scheme runs from 1 November to 31 March each year (the Cold Weather Payment season). 1.1 When are payments triggered? Every day during the Cold Weather Payment season, the Met Office records the average daily temperature from each of a network of 94 weather stations in Great Britain. The Met Office uses these daily averages to produce a single average for each weather station covering the last seven days. It also forecasts what the seven day average will be over the next seven days. Each residential postcode area is linked to one of the 94 weather stations. When an area’s station records or forecasts an average temperature of zero degrees or lower over seven consecutive days a payment of £25 is automatically triggered to eligible benefit claimants in the area. Box 1: Overlapping periods of cold weather There are some fairly complicated rules about payments where there are overlapping periods of cold weather. Broadly, if a day has been used once in a calculated period of cold weather, it cannot be used again. Thus, if a week of cold weather is recorded ending on a particular day a second payment cannot be awarded until a further complete week had passed, even if the intervening days have “triggered”.1 Under the Social Fund Cold Weather Payments (General) Regulations 1988, as amended, the Secretary of State is required to designate a primary weather station for each postcode district for the purposes of Cold Weather Payments and to review the designations annually.2 They are also required to publish details of the designations.3 Background information on Cold Weather Payments published by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides further detail on how postcodes are linked to weather stations: The scheme links postcode districts to weather stations that report to the Met Office on a daily basis. The Met Office takes account of topography, the extent of built-up areas and the distance from available weather stations. Each postcode district is assigned to a weather station with the most similar climate in terms of 1981- 2010 average winter temperature. 1 The rules on overlapping periods are described in greater detail in Vol 7 paras 39700-39714 of the DWP Decision Maker’s Guide 2 The regulations also provide for data from specified secondary stations, or the nearest alternative station to be used if data from the primary station is not available (paragraphs 2(1A) and 2A). 3 Prior to 2016, the list of weather stations and their associated postcodes for a particular winter was provided through amendments to the 1988 regulations. See CBP 7826, Cold Weather Payments for winter 2016/17 for further information. 5 Cold Weather Payments for winter 2017-2018 The final postcode listings are agreed by DWP and this postcode to weather station mapping will be used throughout the Cold Weather Payment season and will not be reviewed further until the following year.4 The list of weather stations and their associated postcodes for the 2017-18 winter is available at: Cold Weather Payment estimates: 2017 to 2018; it is also included as an Appendix to this briefing. 1.2 Which benefit claimants are eligible? A person is eligible for a Cold Weather Payment if there is a period of cold weather where they live (see above) and they were in receipt of Pension Credit for at least one day during the period of cold weather. A person can also qualify for a Cold Weather Payment if they were in receipt of Income Support (IS), income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), or income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for at least one day during the period of cold weather and: • they are responsible for a child under five; or • their IS or JSA includes a disability premium, any one of the pensioner premiums, or a disabled child premium. • their ESA includes a severe or enhanced disability premium, or pensioner premium, of they are in the work-related activity group or the support group; or • they are entitled to Child Tax Credit for a child or qualifying young person who is disabled or severely disabled. Universal Credit (UC) can also act as a gateway to Cold Weather Payments, but, reflecting the existing restrictions outlined above, not all UC claimants are eligible. Recipients of UC are eligible for a Cold Weather Payment if they have a disabled or severely disabled child element within their assessment. They are also eligible if they are not employed or self-employed and: • they or their partner receive either a “limited capability for work” element or a “limited capability for work related activity” element; or • they are responsible for a child under five.5 The Coalition Government estimated that it would cost around an additional £320 million a year to extend Cold Weather Payments to all claimants of UC once the new benefit is fully introduced, and stated that it had no intention of doing so.6 People living in a care home, Abbeyfield home or an independent hospital are excluded from Cold Weather Payments, unless they have a child under five or are getting Child Tax Credit which includes a disabled or severely disabled child element. 4 Department for Work and Pensions, Social Fund Cold Weather Payment Estimates for Great Britain, 2017-18, January 2018, p3. 5 Department for Work and Pensions, Advice for decision making: staff guide, Chapter L4, paras L4091-L4094. 6 HC Deb 3 July 2014 c757w Number 8254, 30 April 2018 6 Further information on the eligibility criteria for Cold Weather Payments is available in the DWP’s Decision Makers’ Guide (vol 7, chapter 39) and, for Universal Credit, in DWP’s Advice for Decision Makers (chapter L4).
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