Freeze triggers weather payouts
Updated on 06 January 2009
Freezing temperatures mean payments to help with heating bills have been triggered in almost 50 different parts of the UK.
The total cost of government's cold weather payments scheme will pass £100m as people in areas of London, Birmingham, Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle and Southampton are among those now eligible for the cash to help with heating bills.
The £25 payments are triggered when the average temperature is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days during the period from 1 November to 31 March in the area in which you live.
In some areas - such as parts of Aberdeen and Perth in Scotland - the payments have already been triggered four times.
Those receiving pension credits are entitled to the money, while those on income support or jobseekers' allowance may also be eligible.
The government says the cash is automatically credited as long as the person is eligible. The information on temperatures is provided by the Met Office's weather stations.
Where the payouts have been triggered
To see at list of all the weather stations where payments have been triggered, and how many times it has been triggered, click here.
To find out which weather station relates to your postcode - and therefore whether your area is eligible for cold weather payments - click here.
The information was correct as of 3.30pm on Tuesday 6 January.
The government recently raised the cold weather payment to £25 a week. But there is now mounting pressure to extend the payment to people who suffer from debilitating illnesses such as arthritis or MS, which are affected by the cold.
Severe weather warnings have been issued across the UK as the temperature plummeted to 11 degrees below freezing in some parts of the country last night.
Since Monday, payouts have been triggered at 48 of UK's 76 stations
48 of the country's 76 weather stations. Thats a total of 3.7million payments - which will cost £93 million. And it's expected a further £15 million of cold weather payments will be triggered today.
Northern Scotland and the south east of England are among the worst hit regions, and the arctic weather conditions are expected to continue into Wednesday.
The cold spell has triggered cold weather payments for pensioners and the severely disabled across the UK.
