Ministers urged to extend cold weather payments to 16m households as energy bills jump again

A think tank has suggested that extending cold weather payments to 16 million households across the country could be one answer to provide immediate targeted help

Emergency cold weather payments should be extended to 16 million households, as households are hit with an energy bill shock, ministers were urged.

Think tank the Resolution Foundation recommends beefing up the scheme - which automatically pays £25 to certain households during local cold snaps - to give more targetted help.

Extending the eligibility could, in small part, offset some of the impact of Labour’s scrapping of winter fuel payments of up to £300 for millions of pensioners, it says. It also suggested the trigger temperature for the payments be raised. By doing so, it would also help a large number hard-up working families with children and others, the Resolution Foundations claims in a report.

Cold weather payments of £25 are paid if temperatures locally fall below zero for each seven days in a row. Eligibility includes those on pension credit, income support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA), and Universal Credit. One suggestion is to expand eligibility to all households in receipt of a means-tested benefit, the state pension, child benefit, or a disability benefit.

Alex Clegg, economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Around 7.7 million households are facing fuel stress this winter, including over half of families with children. These stark statistics illustrate how poorly targeted winter fuel payments are, and why alternative support will be needed this winter.

“Couples with children are more than twice as likely to experience fuel stress as pensioner households, so any new support should not be limited to pensioners. Reforming and expanding cold weather payments offers a viable quick-fix solution to help keep households warm when the mercury drops this winter."

It comes as regulator Ofgem’s price cap for 27 million households jumps by 10% from today. The jump equates to a combined annual increase in bills of £4.1billion.

Industry experts Cornwall Insight estimates the price cap will drop just 1% in January, when it is next updated, meaning customers face sky high winter bills.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK said: “The 10% increase to energy bills is yet another blow to older people living on low and modest incomes who have no other way of increasing the money they have to live on.”

Katie Schmuecker, principal policy adviser at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “Today’s energy price cap rise looms over families who are forced to heat their homes less than they should. It is more than three years since energy prices started to rise, creating an unacceptable level of prolonged hardship for millions of families who are still paying well above what they were before the cost-of-living crisis started.

“This looks like another winter of sleeping in a coat, not showering, and only cooking once a week, to try to keep the bills down.”

A Government spokesperson said: “We will do everything possible to support vulnerable families this winter - including with the £150 Warm Home Discount expected to support three million eligible households, while around 1.3 million households in England and Wales will continue to receive up to £300 in Winter Fuel Payments.