The Department of Work and Pensions today announced that they will be making cold weather payments to all eligible people on the Island for last week.

As cold weather spells come and go in the UK, those entitled to Cold Weather Payments receive extra money to cover additional costs for heating bills. Residents entitled to the payments include pensioners as well as those on means tested benefits. The recent cold snap experienced across the UK has today triggered a payment for all postcodes on the Island.

Since last winter, the system for measuring cold weather on the Island has changed. Previously for some postcodes on the Island it was measured at St Catherine’s Point – where the weather is much more moderate due to its proximity to the Channel. After a concerted effort by the Island’s MP Andrew Turner and a number of Island residents, temperature measurements are now taken from Thorney Island on the mainland, which Government Ministers eventually judged to be a fairer site for measuring the average temperature across the whole island.

Mr Turner is particularly pleased as under the old system, the threshold for the Cold Weather Payments may not have been reached at St Catherine’s, and residents on some parts of the Island would have received nothing.

Mr Turner said of the decision,
“It was not right that on some parts of the Island people were getting the payments, whilst elsewhere they were not. This money is extremely important; it can sometimes make the difference between life and death for the most frail and vulnerable. I would like to thank all Islanders who contacted me to make me aware of the anomaly – and particularly those who sent in evidence about the difference in temperatures between the two weather stations. I am glad that my representations to Ministers were successful and this has now been addressed.
ENDS
Contact: Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808