Written question asked by Mike Weir (Scottish National Party) on Monday, 11 January 2010, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 18 January 2010. It was answered by Helen Goodman (Labour) on Monday, 18 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Cold Weather Payments

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether her Department has plans to (a) increase the level of and (b) extend the eligibility criteria for the cold weather payment.

Answer: We have no current plans to increase the level of cold weather payments or extend the eligibility criteria.Cold weather payments were increased to £25.00, from £8.50, for winter 2008-09 and kept at that level for 2009-10. This helped approximately 4.0 million people in homes across Great Britain. In all £210 million was spent in 2008-09 and 8.4 million payments were made (some received more than one payment). For this current winter we have already committed approximately £261 million at 12 January 2010.

Secondary information