Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of Pension Credit.
Answered by Guy Opperman
Our communications campaign has been running since April 2022 and Pension Credit applications were up by around 75% in the 12 months to May.
We continue advertising through national TV, newspapers and broadcast radio, on social media and digital information screens in Post Offices and GP surgeries across GB.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the potential effect on the public purse of taking into account wind-chill in determining eligibility for cold weather payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Wind chill is the perception of external temperature rather than a measured air temperature. Cold Weather Payments are designed to contribute to the additional costs of heating homes in unseasonably cold weather. As wind chill relates to skin rather than buildings, no assessment has been made of the effect of taking wind chill into account for Cold Weather Payments.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what her Department’s policy is on taking into account the windchill factor when determining eligibility for cold weather payments.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
Wind chill is the perception of external temperature rather than a measured air temperature. Cold Weather Payments are designed to contribute to the additional costs of heating homes in unseasonably cold weather. As wind chill relates to skin rather than buildings, no assessment has been made of the effect of taking wind chill into account for Cold Weather Payments.
Asked by: David Duguid (Conservative - Banff and Buchan)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people in the Banff and Buchan constituency have received Cold Weather Payments in each of the last five years.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
The Cold Weather Payment scheme is administered at weather station level rather than any other standard GB geography such as constituency level. The coverage area for each weather station is determined by the Met Office which assesses the most appropriate weather station for each postcode area. Cold weather payments are triggered when the average temperature recorded at the weather station has been recorded as, or is forecast to be, 0oC or below over seven consecutive days, during the Cold Weather season (November to March).
The constituency of Banff and Buchan covers all or part of the following postcode areas: AB41-5, AB51, AB53-4, and AB56.
The above postcode areas are covered by three weather station: Aboyne, Dyce, and Kinloss. Qualifying individuals living in this area will have received a payment in respect of a seven-day period of Cold Weather, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Estimated number of Cold Weather Payment recipients, by year and weather station | |||||
Weather station | 2013/14 | 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 |
Aboyne | 0 | 7,000¹ | 7,000¹ | 7,000 | 7,000² |
Dyce | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17,000¹ |
Kinloss | 0 | 0 | 13,000 | 0 | 12,000 |
¹ There were two triggers at this weather station; recipients will have received two payments in that year. ² There were five triggers at this weather station; recipients will have received five payments in that year. | |||||
Aboyne, Dyce and Kinloss weather stations cover the following postcode areas, in Table 2, which include constituencies other than Banff and Buchan. We estimate that 78,000 payments, to 36,000 recipients, were made in this area as a whole in respect of the triggers in 2017/18. We are not able to break this figure down to a lower level.
Table 2 Postcode sectors mapped to Weather Stations | |
Weather station | Postcode Sectors Covered |
Aboyne | AB30-34, AB38, AB51-55, DD8-9. |
Dyce | AB10-16, AB21-25, AB39, AB41-43. |
Kinloss | AB44-45, AB56, IV1-3, IV5, IV7-12, IV15-20, IV30-32, IV36. |
Notes
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/social-fund-cold-weather-payments