Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many times the Cold Weather Payments scheme has been triggered in the last two years; how much money has been distributed as part of this scheme; and whether the scheme uses ringfenced funds.

A breakdown of triggers by country along with number of payments can be found in the official statistics for cold weather payment (CWP) estimates here: Cold Weather Payment estimates: 2021 to 2022- GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Expenditure on Cold Weather Payments can be found in the Annual Social Fund Reports here Social Fund annual report 2020 to 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The 21/22 report is due to be published in the near future and thus 21/22 expenditure is an estimate based on the Cold Weather Payment Official Statistics.

Cold Weather Payments are not ring-fenced. Funding for the Cold Weather Payment scheme is demand driven and expenditure varies each year depending on how cold the winter is.