Cold weather payments due for hundreds of thousands more people

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “It should not take a plunge in temperatures for support to reach vulnerable households.

“Cold Weather Payments only kick in after people have already been living in freezing conditions, often forced to ration heat, run up debt or put their health at risk.

“This system is failing the very people it is meant to protect. Support should be triggered automatically and in advance of forecast cold weather, not weeks later once the damage is already being done.

“As well as reforming these payments, Ministers get serious about upgrading cold, leaky homes and fixing an energy system that keeps bills unaffordable and delivers billions of pounds in profits to energy firms.”