§ 40. Mr. Malcolm BruceTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement about the current arrangements for severe weather payments.
§ Mr. ScottSocial fund cold weather payments are made for any seven-day period when the average temperature is 0 deg. Celsius or below.
In order to obtain information on temperature, each of the Department's local offices is linked to one of 62 national climatological message (NCM) stations around the country. The NCM stations used are broadly representative of the climate conditions in the main centres of population and are able to provide the necessary data speedily. These arrangements work well. In the two months to 31 December 1989, cold weather payments totalling £73,500 were made.