Cold Weather Payments

Mr. MacNeil
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in each local authority area have received benefits through the Cold Weather Payment Scheme since 1 November 2009.

Helen Goodman
The information is not available.

Mr. MacNeil
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been spent on the Cold Weather Payment scheme since 1 November 2009.

Helen Goodman
The total expenditure authorised for cold weather payments in Great Britain since 1 November 2009 up to Tuesday 12 January 2010 is estimated to be £261 million.

Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate she has made of the number of pensioners who are eligible to receive cold weather payments in 2009-10.

Helen Goodman
[holding answer 26 January 2010]: The number of pensioner benefit units in Great Britain who are eligible to receive cold weather payments in 2009-10 if the temperature criterion is met is estimated to be 2.6 million.

A benefit unit can be either a single person or a couple. A benefit unit receives only one cold weather payment for a given week. The number of individual pensioners who are potentially helped by cold weather payments is about 3.3 million, taking account of couple households.