Cold Weather Payments: West Yorkshire
(asked on 22nd March 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much her Department has disbursed in cold weather payments to the residents of (a) Wakefield constituency and (b) West Yorkshire in the most recent period for which that information is available.
The Cold Weather Payment scheme is administered at weather station level rather than at a constituency or regional 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 Wakefield covers all or part of the following postcode areas: S75, WF1, WF12, WF2, WF3, WF4 and WF5. These postcode areas are covered by the weather station Sheffield. Sheffield weather station covers the postcode areas, in Table 1, which include constituencies other than Wakefield.
There are twenty-two constituencies in West Yorkshire. Postcodes within these constituencies are linked to one of four weather stations: Sheffield, Bramham, Bingley and Rochdale. Table 1 shows the weather stations linked to West Yorkshire postcodes, and also includes postcodes in constituencies other than West Yorkshire.
Table 1 Postcode sectors mapped to Weather Stations | |
Weather station | Postcode Sectors Covered |
Sheffield | DN1-8, DN11-12, HD1-2, HD4-6, S1-14, S17-18, S20-21, S25-26, S35, S40-45, S60-66, S70-75, S80-81, WF1-17. |
Bramham | HG1-5, LS1-20, LS22-28, YO1, YO8, YO10, YO19, YO23-24, YO26, YO30-32, YO41-43, YO51, YO60-61. |
Bingley | BB4, BB8-12, BB18, BD1-22, HD3, HD7-9, HX1-7, LS21, LS29, OL13-14, S36. |
Rochdale | BL0-9, M24, M26, OL1-12, OL15-16, SK15. |
Table 2 Estimated number of Cold Weather recipients | ||
Weather station | 2020/21 | Number of triggers |
Sheffield | 156,000 | 1 |
Bramham | 60,000 | 1 |
Bingley | 73,000 | 2 |
Rochdale | 69,000 | 1 |
Qualifying individuals living in this area will have received a £25 payment in respect of a seven-day period of Cold Weather. Expenditure can be estimated by multiplying the number of payments by £25.