Child Winter Heating Assistance

What is Child Winter Heating Assistance?
Child Winter Heating Assistance is an annual payment to children and young people with disabilities to support with the increased costs of heating their homes in Winter.
Families who meet the criteria and are eligible will receive a payment of £200. The payment is made per individual rather than per household which means there are no limits to the number of children per family who can receive this payment. If a child or young person receives the qualifying benefits for one day in the qualifying week, they will get this payment.
Whilst Child Winter Heating Assistance is intended for paying those increased winter fuel costs, clients do not need to provide evidence that the money was spent on fuel bills.

Eligibility
In order to be eligible for Child Winter Heating Assistance the following criteria must be met ;
– a child or young person must receive the highest rate care component of DLA child in the qualifying week. The qualifying week for Child Winter Heating Assistance is the 3rd week in September each year. This year, the qualifying week was Monday 21 September to Sunday 27 September 2020.
– be resident in Scotland*
As long as someone is getting the highest rate care component of DLA Child on any day of the qualifying week, they will get the payment.
If a client is awarded a backdated payment of the higher rate care component of DLA Child at a later date for the qualifying week, they will need to contact Social Security Scotland to let us know. We can then process the Child Winter Heating Assistance payment.

How to apply
There is no need to apply for Child Winter Heating Assistance. We will use information provided by the Department for Work and Pensions. People will automatically get this payment annually, as long as they remain eligible.
Clients will get a letter in advance of the payment. This will let them know that they will be receiving a payment and telling them why. As highlighted earlier, the payment is made per individual rather than per household, meaning each eligible child in the household will receive a payment.
Payments will be made from the week commencing 23 November. The payment will be made to the same account as the clients DLA child payment. We will be making payments in batches and everyone should get their Child Winter Heating Assistance by Friday 11 December.

For further information about Child Winter Heating Assistance you can visit MyGov.scot or contact the local Relationship Lead noted below.

Aberdeen City Local Relationship Lead – Lisa Buchan email: lisa.buchan@socialsecurity.gov.scot Tel: 07341 790184