During the current cold weather, thousands of homes will get £25 Government Cold Weather Payments to help with their energy bills.

Parts of the country are covered in snow due to recent wintry weather, while temperatures in certain areas of the UK have dropped as low as -11.2C.

The government has responded by starting to distribute £25 Cold Weather Payments.

Cold Weather Payment is a benefit paid by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to households in areas where the temperature is at or below zero degrees celsius for seven days straight.

Around 10,000 homes are set to get this first 2024 batch of Cold Weather Payments.

To be eligible, households in affected areas will need to be claiming benefits including Income Support, Pension Credit, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Universal Credit and Support for Mortgage Interest.

However, some caveats apply. For example, households on Universal Credit may not get the payment if they are in employment. 

The scheme becomes active from 1 November 2024 and runs until 31 March 2025.

The payment is currently being made to eligible homes in 18 postcode areas:

In postcodes which straddle the English and Scottish borders, only the English homes will get Cold Weather Payments.

This is because Scotland does not pay this benefit.

Instead, Scotland has a one-off benefit called Winter Heating Payment, which is paid to households on qualifying benefits regardless of how cold it gets.

Do I need to claim Cold Weather Payment? 

Cold Weather Payments should be paid out directly by the DWP into bank accounts, without households needing to claim.

After each period of very cold weather in a region, eligible households should get the £25 payment within 14 working days. 

The payment is tax-free and does not affect any other benefits.

The average energy bill is now £1,717 a year and predicted to rise to £1,736 from 1 January 2025.