December’s cold snap cost the taxpayer over £100 million in cold weather payments to help hard-pressed Brits keep warm in the run up to Christmas during a cost-of-living crisis.
Figures out today from the Department for Work and Pensions show that around 80% of the winter’s total payments of £130 million came during the festive season freeze, meaning a payout of around £104 million in the last month of 2022.
Cold weather payments are triggered automatically when the mercury plummets below freezing for seven consecutive days. Qualifying households get £25 per sub-zero week under the terms of the scheme, which runs from November until March.
Over 5 million payments went out this winter, with 3 million of them going to working-age households and 2 million to pensioners, in the form of automatic bank account top-ups.
They came at a time when energy companies were making record profits amid elevated wholesale gas and electricity prices in a market upended by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That has stoked an ongoing controversy about profiteering at utilities, and calls for deeper windfall taxes on the sector.
Businesses have also been hit hard by high electricity prices, while government support for small enterprise is less generous and was scaled back in the Budget, in measures that kicked in at the end of last month.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, high energy bills are the main reason for a wave of closures in the hospitality industry. Property company Altus has found that over 150 permanent closures so far in 2023.
Emma McClarkin, CEO of the British Beer and Pub Association said: “Energy bills are decimating our sector with extortionate costs wiping out profits and closing pubs at a faster rate than the pandemic. Pubs that were profitable and thriving before the energy crisis are being left with no option but to shut up shop.”
The cold weather payments to households were issued alongside the government’s Energy Price Guarantee scheme which capped the average domestic bill at £2,500.
Minister for Pensions Laura Trott said: “While those colder months are now thankfully behind us, there will be no let-up in our extensive support for households across the country.”
Millions of households will receive direct payments of £301 from the DWP between April 25 and May 17, the first of three grants worth £900 in total to help with the ongoing high cost of living.
