Cold Weather Payments (Hansard, 12 December 1988)

§ Mr. Boateng
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he intends to increase the level of cold weather payments this winter.

§ Dr. Reid
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he intends to increase the level of cold weather payments this winter.

§ Mr. Scott
No. We believe the sum of £5 per week is a reasonable amount to pay towards the cost of extra heating needed in particularly cold weather.

§ Mr. Flynn
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much he would expect to spend on advertising cold weather payments if a spell of cold weather covered the whole of Great Britain.

§ Mr. Scott
Local office managers are required to advertise the availability of cold weather payments in the press immediately a spell of cold weather is declared. Costs will vary depending on the size of the geographic area covered by the particular newspaper and the extent of advertising needed. However, total expenditure for the winter of 1986–87, which included a particularly cold spell of weather, was £414,000.

§ Mr. Flynn
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what additional information local offices of his Department would need in order to identify income support claimants entitled to cold weather payments without requiring them to claim individually.

§ Mr. Scott
Payment in the manner suggested would require local offices to search through their entire live load of cases to identify case papers for those in the eligible groups. Information would then also be required to establish the amount of capital held by each potential beneficiary.