On the UK's Cold Weather Payment Scheme
The U.K. government has been running cold weather payments to eligible households for almost a decade now.
I noticed that these payments were triggered this week for a few hundred postcodes. The payments are triggered when the average temperature falls below 0 degrees for seven days in a row.
When the trigger temperature is reached automatic payments of £25 per week are made to some households claiming certain benefits... Pension Credit, Income Support, Universal Credit, and Employment Support Allowance.
For some of the above you have to have either disabled children or children under five living in the household, and people who are self-employed and on UC don't get anything....
The total amounts vary a lot year to year...
There's data from the last several years and there's A LOT of variability in terms of how much is paid every eyar... from £0.2M to £118M.
These amounts naturally vary with the yearly temperatures, which you can see from Jan temps, very roughly...
Sad to say but these amounts are SMALL compared to total benefits outlay every year, which is well over £200 billion, so even in a high spend year, £100 million is only 0.5% more.
Once again, NO HELP for the working poor...
I mean maybe it is fair enough that the poor elderly and those incapable of work get these payments, but once again we have a situation where many people working and on a low income get NOTHING.
And if you're unlucky enough to be earning just enough to take you above that first tax threshold, well some of your money is being taken away to keep the non-working warm even though you won't yourself be earning enough to heat your own home.
It's an odd situation, to say the least!
Well, of course, both these groups should have enough to keep warm: it isn't an either/or. More affluent people and corporations are adept at paying the least tax possible, preferably avoiding paying anything at all and, it appears, with very little penalty, unlike anyone who is on benefits, the conditions of which are ever more draconian. If taxpaying working people with low incomes wish to direct their frustration at someone, I would suggest focusing on people who are not paying the tax they should rather than people that have common cause: not enough money.
Yes fair point, I do think we need to increase that tax free threshold, it's ludicrous that it's below the amount you can receive on UC.
Ridiculous!
Here in our country also the same thing is being done, every day the prices of things are being increased and the salary of the people is the same as before, so people are very worried and living in a lot of trouble.