Cold Weather Payments criteria.
 

Absolutely ridiculous. It has to be zero degrees or minus for 7 consecutive days before you can qualify for a 25 pounds payment towards your heating. It's not quite been that for the past week so no payouts. Pah!

It's absolutely ridiculous.
Not only do people who can get it, have to freeze for 7 consecutive days, so never really knowing if they can increase their heating or not, because of the cruel rule of 7 consecutive days for it to dip on or below freezing.

Then getting over that hurdle, when and IF it ever happens, then they have to wait ANOTHER near week or 10 days before the payment eventually gets to them.

Crikey it's more like a rigged obstacle race to get one of these terribly set up payments..

25.00 is paltry as well, it's not been looked at since gas prices rocketed so its a pretty pointless payment

Absolutely Cherie. It should be more, for the pensioners. They've lost out on a lot of money already. That's my concern.

anyone pensioner who finds it too cold should go to live in their holiday home in a hot country. if they dont have that choice then they should think about their life decisions in the cold.

It used to be only around £11 per payment from being brought in right up to the 2000s.
It was never increased much at all for ages.

In the 2000s Labour increased it from around £11+ up to £25.

It hasn't been looked at again since then.
It is time to look at it but really it's so hard to get by the ruling around how it's triggered with the 7 days consecutive days nonsense.
That needs reducing as to the number of qualifying days in my view

As it stands really it's more pointless than a help.

yes Joey 7 days is nonsensical, as most cold snaps don't last that long at any rate , 4 days might be more practical, and it definately needs an increase

Yes absolutely, 4 days would be much better.
That's still over half a week and that's even too long for people to have to worry as to can they increase their heating not knowing if it will last 7 days.

It doesn't obviously apply to myself but 6 days of freezing weather and they get nothing.
One more day they'd get £25.
It's despicable.

Whenever the government want to phase a payment out, they just stop increasing it over time, which is what they have been doing for 2 generations.

The reality is that there should be enough margin in benefits etc so that a winter fuel allowance is not necessary. We all know that the baseline state pension is just not high enough. We have a minimum wage, but we don't have a minimum state pension that will keep an old person off the breadline

I totally agree with this too.