DWP could scrap £25 Cold Weather Payments for £10 daily payouts
The Department for Work and Pensions £25 Cold Weather Payments should be scrapped for daily £10 payouts, according to experts. Researchers have called for a Cold Weather Payment eligibility and payment shake-up under the Labour Party government.
The report found the current £25 payouts - which span from November to the spring - cover less than half the extra cost of keeping warm during a cold snap. Researchers instead told the Mirror they suggest a system that credits the energy accounts of all eligible households with £10 on every day the Met Office declares the minimum temperature will be minus 4 degrees Celsius or lower on the following day.
Dr Tina Fawcett of Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute, said: “This simple change, which will not be expensive, will help households stay warm when it really matters. It will ensure the Government can deliver the right support at the right time.”
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said in a statement: “Exposure to critically low levels of energy use in fuel poor households means that they are not heating their homes to an adequate level - leaving them to live in cold, damp conditions.
“While energy saving through better insulation and ventilation of properties is part of the long term solution to people living in cold damp homes, we need emergency support for households for foreseeable winters. For a Chancellor suffering from the political fallout from the Winter Fuel Payment cuts, a modern, updated, compassionate level of support during cold weather should be an obvious step to take.”
Jason Palmer, from Cambridge Architectural Research and UCL, added: “It is extremely worrying that households in fuel poverty are cutting energy use compared to other households when it is coldest. This puts their health, and ultimately their lives, at risk.”