Cold Weather Payments

[grandfatherd]

When speaking to a neighbor the other day, he got to talking about cold weather payments. As we were discussing this , he told me that he was a nurse ( I think at a place for long term illness) where a number of patients had received letters from DWP informing them of £25 being payed into thier bank acounts. The nursing staff thought this was very strange as these people were no longer living at home. One of the staff decided to phone the local DWP office and query this anomaly. the person who was spoken to said that the DWP were aware of this but it was ruled that it would be far more expensive to stop these payments than just paying. After the conversation with my neibor I could not make any sense of this, so I am asking if any of you abers out there can give an explantion? Danny,

[vakayu]

I've heard of this grandfatherd,last winter several well off people wanted to refuse their winter payment altogether as they did not need it,and were told the exact same that it was too expensive to administer and that there were no facilities or arrangements in place to do so,seems ludicrous.

[razza]

Cold weather payment is different to the winter fuel allowance,cold weather payments are means tested,winter fuel allowance is not.To qualify for cold weather payment you have to receive certain benefits,pension credits etc.To receive cold weather payment the temperature has to be on or below freezing for 7 consecutive days.I am a pensioner but do not receive this because with my state pension and company pension my earnings are above the threshold.So if a person is paid this then they are entitled to it.If after receiving it they want to give it away then that is entirely up to them.

[grandfatherd]

Razza, please read my question again.
danny,

[bednobs]

hi danny, of course they are living at home - the nursing home or unit is their home (ie where they live) - if they qualify for it, then they get it.

[losgigs]

Not quite sure what you want explaining, Danny. DWP seem to be saying that it would be too costly/time -consuming to stop payments for those in care-homes as it would mean someone would have to go through 1000s of records to establish this. If those in care do receive this, I suppose they could organise for it to paid to the home to help with the bills, but this wouldn't be easy to do.
We receive it as my mother lives with us, and it certainly helps with our huge heating bills.

[NOX]

Razza is perfectly correct- he doesn't need to re-read anything.