Closed petition: Reduce the time required to qualify for Cold Weather Payments

Closed on 10 September 2025

I want the time it takes to qualify for the payments to reduce to 4 days.

Partly due to our variable climate, and climate change, we may have shorter, sharp cold spells with milder weather in between.

I think elderly and disabled people may struggle as it takes 7 days to qualify for this support.

Currently, those eligible get a payment if the average temperature in their area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees Celsius or below over 7 consecutive days, and this doesn't happen that often. The cost of heating our homes is so high that even when temperatures hit below zero, many people may be put off heating it to keep warm, potentially leading to deaths and preventable illness. This ultimately can have a big knock-on effect for the NHS.