Cold Weather Payments

poppy123456
poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
in Benefits and income
Some areas have triggered a cold weather payment. You can check your area here. https://coldweatherpayments.dwp.gov.uk/search.php 
You can check if you qualify here. https://www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment/eligibility

This doesn't apply to those living in Scotland.



Comments

  • Albus_Scope
    Albus_Scope Posts: 9,560 Scope Online Community Coordinator
    Thanks for the heads up Poppy, most appreciated.   

    Hopefully this can help lots of people.
  • gjw59help
    gjw59help Online Community Member Posts: 69 Contributor
    It's about time Cold Weather Payments and Cost of Living Payments were given to claimants on Contribution Based Benefits,Universal Credit claimants are wrongly thought to be the poorest in society we are also on the breadline and "have no savings" to fall back on all we get extra is 10 quid for Xmas although I could spend it on having the heating on all Xmas day!
  • 2oldcodgers
    2oldcodgers Posts: 739 Connected
    gjw59help said:
    It's about time Cold Weather Payments and Cost of Living Payments were given to claimants on Contribution Based Benefits,Universal Credit claimants are wrongly thought to be the poorest in society we are also on the breadline and "have no savings" to fall back on all we get extra is 10 quid for Xmas although I could spend it on having the heating on all Xmas day!
    Are you suggesting that many, including my son in law who is on contribution based benefits should get the CWP? He has too much in the way of investments so cannot claim UC.
    Are you not able to claim UC to top up your income?
  • gjw59help
    gjw59help Online Community Member Posts: 69 Contributor
    No because my wife is on state pension and they include her money when working out Universal Credit so takes the total to just over the lower limit,I usually treat myself to a small bottle of whisky at Xmas but can't afford it this year,last year with the heating payments we were okay struggling now though
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing

    gjw59help said:
    It's about time Cold Weather Payments and Cost of Living Payments were given to claimants on Contribution Based Benefits,Universal Credit claimants are wrongly thought to be the poorest in society we are also on the breadline and "have no savings" to fall back on all we get extra is 10 quid for Xmas although I could spend it on having the heating on all Xmas day!

    We've talked about this at length in previous threads from you. If you were claiming Income Related ESA or even UC then you would be worse off than you are now. That's because your wife's state pension would be deducted in full from either of those benefits. 

    As your wife in claiming her state pension then you will be entitled to the Winter Fuel payment, due to be paid anytime this month. (if not already received)
  • 2oldcodgers
    2oldcodgers Posts: 739 Connected
    gjw59help said:
    No because my wife is on state pension and they include her money when working out Universal Credit so takes the total to just over the lower limit,I usually treat myself to a small bottle of whisky at Xmas but can't afford it this year,last year with the heating payments we were okay struggling now though
    So you are unable to claim UC because your total income exceeds that allowed for by the DWP.
    My wife (79) does not get any state pension in her own right as she brought up 4 children and has never worked. Despite my state pension plus 5 other private pensions our income is still below what the government says we need. We get a top up of Pension Credit - £65 pw.
    On that basis your income must be in excess of what we get and I believe that we are on a good income.
    The CWP should in my opinion be restricted to those that have an income below what we should have and which is topped up with a means tested benefit - we must then be 'the poorest in society'.
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 11,750 Online Community Programme Lead
    2oldcodgers said:
    On that basis your income must be in excess of what we get and I believe that we are on a good income.
    The CWP should in my opinion be restricted to those that have an income below what we should have and which is topped up with a means tested benefit - we must then be 'the poorest in society'.
    I would argue that claiming a means-tested benefit doesn't always make you the 'poorest in society'. It's important to remember that entitlements vary greatly depending on individual circumstances.

    I've known of people earning well over £6,000 a month and their household circumstances still entitled them to a sizeable amount of Universal Credit on top. Many would argue they could not be the poorest in society, despite claiming a means-tested benefit.

    In your situation, if you are receiving full state pension (£203.85 per week), even before your pension credit top up, you're receiving £815.40  4-weekly. With pension credit (and PIP on top), I would say that although you are receiving a means-tested benefit, your income is substantially higher than say a working-age job seeker with no savings, who when claiming a means-tested benefit would receive just £292.11 a month.
  • gjw59help
    gjw59help Online Community Member Posts: 69 Contributor
    Thank you for pointing that out Poppy we have not had to go to any foodbanks yet but after food,gas and electric there may be £10 to £20 left a fortnight for anything else and we both have worked most of our lives
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    edited December 2023
    2oldcodgers said:
    gjw59help said:
    No because my wife is on state pension and they include her money when working out Universal Credit so takes the total to just over the lower limit,I usually treat myself to a small bottle of whisky at Xmas but can't afford it this year,last year with the heating payments we were okay struggling now though

    My wife (79) does not get any state pension in her own right as she brought up 4 children and has never worked.
    That's odd because in a previous comment you stated the exact opposite.

    We as state pension recipients and both of us being accredited as being disabled by the DWP have no need to top up our weekly income. Approx 80% of our weekly income comes from the State Pensions



  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    gjw59help said:
    Thank you for pointing that out Poppy we have not had to go to any foodbanks yet but after food,gas and electric there may be £10 to £20 left a fortnight for anything else and we both have worked most of our lives

    That's very likely the reason why you're entitled to contributions based ESA because you worked in the 2 tax years prior to claiming ESA. Unless you transferred from Incapacity benefit. I know it doesn't help your situation right now but it would be so much worse if you were claiming Income Related ESA.
  • 2oldcodgers
    2oldcodgers Posts: 739 Connected
    Adrian_Scope said:
    2oldcodgers said:
    On that basis your income must be in excess of what we get and I believe that we are on a good income.
    The CWP should in my opinion be restricted to those that have an income below what we should have and which is topped up with a means tested benefit - we must then be 'the poorest in society'.
    I would argue that claiming a means-tested benefit doesn't always make you the 'poorest in society'. It's important to remember that entitlements vary greatly depending on individual circumstances.

    In the eyes of the DWP it does. They assess an income level and if that income falls below the amount that they say is the minimum that is needed, the State would top up the income to that level using a means tested benefit.

    I've known of people earning well over £6,000 a month and their household circumstances still entitled them to a sizeable amount of Universal Credit on top. Many would argue they could not be the poorest in society, despite claiming a means-tested benefit.

    Grief that does surprise me.

    In your situation, if you are receiving full state pension (£203.85 per week), even before your pension credit top up, you're receiving £815.40  4-weekly. With pension credit (and PIP on top), I would say that although you are receiving a means-tested benefit, your income is substantially higher than say a working-age job seeker with no savings, who when claiming a means-tested benefit would receive just £292.11 a month.

    I don't receive anything like that for my State Pension. I get the 'old' basic pension of £156.20 a week and as my wife who has never worked she gets £93.60 a week based on my pension. That's a total of £249.80 a week. PIP is not income - it is supposed to be paid to compensate for the extra costs -if there are any.
    The differences between that person and myself is that I have paid a substantial amount of NI contributions in my lifetime as well he/she has the opportunity to earn a good income being young whereas at 75 I doubt many employers would want to take me on - medical conditions and all.


    The idea of a means tested benefit system is to top up an income to a level that the government say that is the minimum level needed.
  • gjw59help
    gjw59help Online Community Member Posts: 69 Contributor
    My argument is that CB benefit claimants were not given any of "cost of living" payments making them much worse off financially over a year than UC claimants generally then the Tories continue to brag about it being inclusive.
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    edited December 2023
    gjw59help said:
    My argument is that CB benefit claimants were not given any of "cost of living" payments making them much worse off financially over a year than UC claimants generally then the Tories continue to brag about it being inclusive.
    Based on a previous thread in 2022 even with the cost of living payments you would still be worse off if you were claiming Income Related. 

    In Feb 2022 a calculation was done on a thread and you would have been £1,216/year worse off if you were claiming Income Related. Thread here https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/88566/income-based-versus-contribution-based-benefits/p1

    With the cost of living payments, you would have still be worse off. 

    I totally understand why it doesn’t feel like you are better off but the figures speak for their self. 

    Having said that, mixed aged couples will always be worse off since the rule changes in 2019, than they would have been had the rules not changed. 

  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    edited December 2023
    @2oldcodgers I’ve been a member here since 2017 and I’ll be honest, I’ve never ever come across anyone as disrespectful as you.  How can you tell someone "they have the opportunity to earn good money", when you know nothing about their situation at all? That's such a horrible and nasty thing to say to anyone!

    You constantly contradict yourself. You give misleading information and I’m never really sure whether anything you say is true anymore. 

    Let’s think back to some of your comments. You've said many times that your PIP award started in 2016, see thread.. They just informed me that a review had taken place and that the new decision was a 10 year award from that date to 2029. There was no mention of the points that had been previously awarded back in 2016/17.
    Then here, you said you've been claiming since 2019... https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/734770#Comment_734770 I started my DLA claim 28 years ago and eventually moved onto PIP in 2019 with a 10 year award.

    Hmm, how can you have a review if your PIP didn't start until 2019?

    I've always said that you need to have a good memory to be untruthful.

    Please be kind and have some consideration for other people when commenting on threads.

  • gjw59help
    gjw59help Online Community Member Posts: 69 Contributor
    Says on my letter each year that I am entitled to an "Income related amount" of **** but as you are entitled to "Contribution Based" we will pay you **** which is exactly the same amount,but we are excluded from the "cost of living" payments of £1200 a year plus loads of other things you get for free on Income Related!
  • poppy123456
    poppy123456 Online Community Member Posts: 64,463 Championing
    gjw59help said:
    Says on my letter each year that I am entitled to an "Income related amount" of **** but as you are entitled to "Contribution Based" we will pay you **** which is exactly the same amount,but we are excluded from the "cost of living" payments of £1200 a year plus loads of other things you get for free on Income Related!

    That's typical of ESA letters making no sense at all. Please see your other thread for details. The cost of living payments for means tested benefits for working age people are not £1200 a year. Last year it was £650, this year it was £601 and next year it will be £299.

    As your wife is state pension age then there's the Winter Fuel payment.

    For the wame home discount, if you live in England or Wales, just a means tested benefit doesn't automatically entitle you anymore because the crtieria changed last year. It also depends on the size and age of your home.

    For NHS treatment then there's also the low Income Scheme you can apply for. Details here. https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/nhs-low-income-scheme

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