![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_050126winterweather23.jpg\")
Eligible households receive \u00a325 to help with heating costs(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\nPayments have been triggered in over 450 postcode areas across the country – but none are in Greater ManchesterEligible households receive \u00a325 to help with heating costs(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n
Thousands of households across the UK will be getting a \u00a325 cash boost<\/a> as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) triggered Cold Weather<\/a> Payments for over 450 postcode areas following a freezing start to 2026. However, no one in Greater Manchester will benefit from the financial help despite plummeting temperatures this week.<\/p>\n The scheme works by paying out \u00a325 to eligible households when temperatures in that postcode area are forecast to be, or drop below, 0C for seven consecutive days to help with the additional heating costs. It was announced this morning that almost 450 postcode areas will benefit from the help following icy temperatures this week<\/a>.<\/p>\n It comes as the UK is currently in the grips of a freezing cold spell, with Met Office snow and ice warnings in force across the country as well as a UKHSA cold-health alert affecting England in its entirety. UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) alert<\/a> means that there is likely to be additional pressures placed on health and social services over the period until January 9, with an increase in deaths expected due to the low temperatures.<\/p>\n The \u00a325 payments are made to people in England and Wales who receive a range of benefits including Pension Credit, Income Support, income-based Jobseeker\u2019s Allowance (JSA), income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), Universal Credit, Support for Mortgage Interest.<\/p>\n Each area is linked to a weather station and the Met Office informs the DWP when the thresholds are met. In Greater Manchester, the Rostherne and Rochdale<\/a> weather stations cover the region.<\/p>\n According to the Reach data unit, Rochdale weather station states that today is the third consecutive day the average temperature will be below zero. The forecast for tomorrow and Wednesday is for the temperature to be very slightly above zero (0.15C and 0.31C) but then on Thursday, temperatures will reach 1.53C and 1.86C on Friday.<\/p>\n So there’s a chance Rochdale will notch up five consecutive days of sub zero temperatures – but the forecast is that by Thursday the temperature is likely to go above the threshold, so it’s unlikely to get the full seven days unless forecasts change.<\/p>\n In Rostherne, Cheshire – which covers most of Manchester, Salford<\/a>, Trafford<\/a> and Stockport<\/a> – the weather station has only recorded two consecutive days of eligible temperatures. The forecast is for it to be just above freezing tomorrow, and to be slightly warmer than Rochdale the rest of the week.<\/p>\n The DWP does often trigger a payment at the start of a seven-day period of freezing temperatures, but only if the forecasts show a likelihood of sub-zero average temperatures for the full seven days, so that’s why there is no Cold Weather Payment for Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n Payments are based on the average temperature across the whole 24 hours, so freezing temperatures at night don’t count if it warms up sufficiently during the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payments have been triggered in over 450 postcode areas across the country – but none are in Greater…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,487,1267,393,4884,2465,2768,1232,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-676367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-cost-of-living","10":"tag-dwp","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-manchester-weather","15":"tag-money","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115844886419755356","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}