The DWP is sending out Cold Weather Payments (Image: Getty)
The DWP is this week sending cash bonuses to 18 UK postcodes – and more could follow in the coming days.
The runs a scheme called Cold Weather Payments which makes pensioners on low incomes automatically eligible for a £25 cash bonus if the weather hits 0C for at least seven days in a row.
With the arriving across several parts of the UK this week, many state pensioners will now become eligible for a
And 18 postcodes are already eligible to receive the bonus cash and should be paid the money.
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So far, postcodes LA8, LA9 and LA10, as well as LA21, LA22 and LA23 in Lancaster, CA9, CA10, CA11, CA12 and CA16 and CA17 in Carlisle will get the money.
In Newcastle, NE19, NE47, NE48 and NE49 will be eligible, while Dumfries and Galloway DG14 and Galashiels TD9 will also be eligible for the £25.
Households with state pensioners in those postcodes will get £25 each during any consecutive seven-day period of 0C temperatures, from now until March 31.
With snow arriving in much of the north of England, Scotland and Wales today, it’s expected that more postcodes will become eligible for the money in the coming days.
Last year, about 500 postcodes were given payments of up to £75, while 250 got as much the year before.
The money is paid by the in England and Wales, while Scotland’s version of the bonus is called a Winter Heating Payment and is paid by the Scottish government.
To be able to claim the payments, you must also be on certain benefits such as Pension Credit, Income Support, Income based Jobseekers Allowance or Universal Credit.
Money expert Martin Lewis says there are still as many as 800,000 pensioners who should be claiming Pension Credit who aren’t, and those people would be eligible for Cold Weather Payments as well as £200 to £300 Winter Fuel Payments too.