Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the eligibility criteria for cold weather payments to include people who are (a) unable to work and (b) retired.

Cold Weather Payments are intended to provide extra help to the people most vulnerable to the cold, who are in receipt of certain income-related benefits. This includes:

• Retired people in receipt of Pension Credit.

• People unable to work, in receipt of income-related Employment and Support Allowance that includes a work-related activity or support component.

• People in receipt of Income Support, income-related Employment and Support Allowance in the assessment phase, or income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, and who have a pensioner or disability premium or receive the additional element paid with Child Tax Credit where there is a disabled child in the family, or a have child under the age of five.

• People in receipt of Universal Credit if they, or their partner, are not employed or self-employed and one of the following apply: they have a health condition or disability and have limited capability for work (with or without work-related activity); they have a child under 5 living with them.

• People in receipt of Universal Credit which includes a disabled child amount, whether they are employed or not.

• People in receipt of a Support for Mortgage Interest Loan will also usually be eligible.