MP successfully lobbies for change in cold weather payment calculations
 
After complaints from constituents, last winter Angela Smith, MP for Basildon and East Thurrock, raised the anomalies in the way South Essex’s cold weather payments were calculated .
 

In addition to the £200 winter fuel payments made to pensioners, cold weather payments of £25 are made to those in need, when the average temperature where you live is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over seven consecutive days during the period from 1st November to 31st March.
 
Angela said, “I am proud that by the Labour Government has trebled the cold weather payment from £8.50 to £25 a week, but bizarrely different parts of Thurrock, let alone South Essex as a whole, were calculated from different weather stations – one as far away as Manston in East Kent.
 
“Following my representations, I have now received a response from the Minister responsible, stating that in future the calculations for the whole of South Essex will take place from the same weather station – Gravesend, which is much nearer and has similar temperatures to our side of the Thames. I hope the weather isn’t as harsh as last year, but if it is, at least we know we will be treated fairly in South Essex.”