Cold Weather Payment: £25 for each seven-day freeze from 1 November, paid automatically

Cold Weather Payment is a payment for spells of cold weather. It is made automatically when the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days.

How much, and over what period?

£25 for each seven-day period of very cold weather between 1 November 2026 and 31 March 2027. There can be several such periods in a winter, and each is paid separately.

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You can check whether your area qualifies by postcode: GOV.UK has separate checkers for England and Wales and for Northern Ireland.

Cold Weather Payment is NOT the Winter Fuel Payment — they are two different things. And it does not affect your other benefits.

Who qualifies?

Four routes: Pension Credit; income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA); Universal Credit; and Support for Mortgage Interest.

Pension Credit is the simple one: if you get it, you will usually get Cold Weather Payments too.

On income-related ESA you will usually qualify if you are in the work-related activity group or the support group. If you are in neither, you may still qualify if you have a severe or enhanced disability premium, a pensioner premium, a child who is disabled, or a child under five living with you.

What are the conditions on Universal Credit?

The base requirement: you are not employed and not 'gainfully self-employed', and the same applies to your partner if you have one. You are likely to count as gainfully self-employed if self-employment is your main job, you work regularly and you expect to make a profit.

On top of that, one of two things must apply: you or your partner have a health condition or disability with limited capability for work (with or without work-related activity), or you have a child under five living with you.

A separate rule: if your claim includes a disabled child amount, you qualify regardless of whether you or your partner are employed, self-employed or not working.

What about Support for Mortgage Interest?

On SMI you will usually qualify if you are treated as getting a qualifying benefit and one of the following applies: a severe or enhanced disability premium, a pensioner premium, a child who is disabled, or a child under five in the household.

'Treated as getting' matters here: you are usually treated as getting a qualifying benefit if you applied for it but do not receive it because your income is too high.

Do you have to do anything?

There is no application — if you are eligible, you are paid automatically. But there is one case where you must act: if you have a baby, or a child under five comes to live with you, you need to report a change of circumstances. That applies to people on Universal Credit and income-related ESA.

And in Scotland?

Scotland does not have Cold Weather Payments. You might get the annual Winter Heating Payment instead, and that is paid regardless of the weather in your area.