Cold Weather Payment

1. Overview



You may get a Cold Weather Payment if you’re getting certain benefits.

Payments are made when your local temperature is either recorded as, or forecast to be, an average of zero degrees Celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.

You’ll get a payment of £25 for each 7 day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.




2. What you'll get



You’ll get £25 for each 7 day period of very cold weather between 1 November and 31 March.

After each period of very cold weather in your area, you should get a payment within 14 working days. It’s paid into the same bank or building society account as your benefit payments.

Cold Weather Payments don’t affect your other benefits.





3. Eligibility



You may get Cold Weather Payments if you’re getting:

• Pension Credit


• Income Support


• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance


• income-related Employment and Support Allowance


• Universal Credit

Pension Credit

You’ll usually get Cold Weather Payments if you get Pension Credit.



Income Support and income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance

You’ll usually get Cold Weather Payments if you get Income Support or income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and have any of the following:

• a disability or pensioner premium


• a child who is disabled


• Child Tax Credit that includes a disability or severe disability element


• a child under 5 living with you

Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)

You’ll usually get Cold Weather Payments if you get income-relatedESA and have any of the following:

• the support or work-related component of ESA


• a severe or enhanced disability premium


• a pensioner premium


• a child who is disabled


• Child Tax Credit that includes a disability or severe disability element


• a child under 5 living with you

Universal Credit

You’ll usually get Cold Weather Payments if you get Universal Credit, you’re not employed or self employed and one of the following apply:

• you get a limited capability for work element (with or without a work-related activity element)


• you get the disabled child element in your claim


• you have a child under 5 living with you

You’ll also be eligible if you have a disabled child element in your claim, whether you are employed or not.





4. How to claim



You don’t need to apply. If you’re eligible to get a Cold Weather Payment, you’ll be paid it automatically.

Use the Cold Weather Payment tool to find out if your area is due to receive a payment.



If you have a child under 5 living with you

If you get Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance or income-related Employment and Support Allowance you’ll need to tell Jobcentre Plus if:

• you’ve had a baby


• a child under 5 has come to live with you

Otherwise, you won’t automatically receive any Cold Weather Payments you should get.



If you don’t receive your Cold Weather Payment

Tell your pension centre or Jobcentre Plus office if you think you should have received a Cold Weather Payment but you haven’t.





5. Further information



Hospital stays

Tell your pension centre or Jobcentre Plus office if you go into hospital - this could affect your payment.





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Cold Weather Payment