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Exact code to spot if you’re getting £25 cold weather payment direct to your bank account this week
THOUSANDS of households must look out for a code in their bank statements to check they have received a £25 cold weather payment.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) hands out the free cash to help support hard-up households pay their energy bills amid frosty weather.
Cold weather payments have been triggered across 18 postcode areas due to amber weather warnings.
If you are eligible, the payment should automatically appear in your bank account within 14 days of your postcode being triggered.
However, if you think you are eligible, but can’t see the payment in your statement, it helps to look out for an exact code.
For those living in England and Wales, it should appear as the customer’s National Insurance (NI) number followed by “DWP CWP”.
Whereas those living in Northern Ireland should look for their NI number followed by “DFC CWP”.
This means you do not need to apply for the benefit.
However, if you think you should be in receipt of the benefit and it does not come through, you should tell the Pension Service or Job Centre Plus.
Call the Pension Service helpline on 0800 731 0469 or find your nearest Jobcentre by visiting find-your-nearest-jobcentre.dwp.gov.uk/.
If you’re on Universal Credit, you can log in to your account and add a note to your journal.
What are Cold Weather Payments?
To help with rising bill prices and the cost of living, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) offers the emergency benefit each year when bad weather hits.
Households can get £25 during each seven-day period of low temperatures from now until March 31.
The payments are issued across the postcodes affected by the temperature hit.
Eligible households within that postcode get the £25 for each seven day period it is needed.
Further cold weather could lead to additional payments in other areas, and there is no maximum limit to the amount you can receive.
For example, almost 500 postcodes got payments worth up to £75 last winter, while over 250 got the same amount the year before.
You can also check if you are due a cold weather payment in the future by visiting coldweatherpayments.dwp.gov.uk.
Who is eligible for the payment?
Households in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are eligible for cold weather payments.
Meanwhile, households in Scotland aren’t eligible.
However they get a Winter Heating Payment instead – more information on this can be found at www.mygov.scot/winter-heating-payment.
The postcodes which qualify for the cold weather payment this year are:
- Carlisle: CA9-12, CA16-17
- Dumfries and Galloway: DG14
- Galashiels: TD9
- Lancaster: LA8-10, LA21-23
- Newcastle upon Tyne: NE19, NE47-NE49
To qualify for the cold weather payments in these areas you must be in receipt of one of the following benefits:
- Pension Credit
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Universal Credit
- Support for Mortgage Interest
Are you missing out on benefits?
YOU can use a benefits calculator to help check that you are not missing out on money you are entitled to
Charity Turn2Us’ benefits calculator works out what you could get.
Entitledto’s free calculator determines whether you qualify for various benefits, tax credit and Universal Credit.
MoneySavingExpert.com and charity StepChange both have benefits tools powered by Entitledto’s data.
You can use Policy in Practice’s calculator to determine which benefits you could receive and how much cash you’ll have left over each month after paying for housing costs.
Your exact entitlement will only be clear when you make a claim, but calculators can indicate what you might be eligible for.
Sometimes there is other eligibility criteria you must fulfil to be eligible for the payments.
If you’re on Universal Credit, for example, you only get a payment if you are not in employment or “gainfully self-employed”.
Most eligible people don’t need to apply to get cold weather payments.
However, if you are on Income Support, income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) or income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and have had a baby or have a child under five living with you, you need to tell your local Jobcentre Plus centre.
If you don’t, you won’t receive an automatic payment.
You can check your eligibility for a cold weather payment via https://www.gov.uk/cold-weather-payment/eligibility.
Do you have a money problem that needs sorting? Get in touch by emailing money-sm@news.co.uk.
Plus, you can join our Sun Money Chats and Tips Facebook group to share your tips and stories
All iPhone users warned ‘update now’ over two serious security risks
IPHONE owners have been told to install an “important” security update, or risk cyber crooks accessing their devices.
Apple has rolled out a new security update that fixes two dangerous bugs that allow attackers to compromise iPhones from afar.
The update is titled iOS 18.1.1 for iPhone users and OS 15.1.1 for Mac users, and is available to download in today.
“With attackers potentially exploiting both vulnerabilities, it is critical that users and mobile-first organisations apply the latest patches as soon as they are able,” Michael Covington, vice president of strategy at security firm Jamf, urged.
The flaws are listed below:
- CVE-2024-44308 – A vulnerability in JavaScriptCore that could lead to arbitrary code execution when processing malicious web content
- CVE-2024-44309 – A cookie management vulnerability in WebKit that could lead to a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack when processing malicious web content
While this sounds like gobbledygook to the average person, Covington, breaks it down.
“CVE-2024-44308 is a vulnerability in JavaScriptCore, a framework for running JavaScript code in apps and web browsers,” he explains.
“It allows attackers to compromise the device when malicious code in injected in the web content,” he added, like a web page or link.
CVE-2024-44309, the second flaw, was found in WebKit and lets hackers inject malware into trusted websites and exploit how cookies are managed.
Web cookies let websites remember you, your logins, and sometimes even your financial details – information which you don’t want in the hands of hackers.
“Vulnerabilities in WebKit are important to patch quickly,” Covington noted.
“It is the framework that powers Safari, and also presents other web-based content to users.”
Apple has warned that both vulnerabilities may have been exploited by criminals already on Mac systems.
However, little is known about these potential attacks.
Clément Lecigne and Benoît Sevens of Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) have been credited with discovering the flaws.
According to a report by The Hacker News, the flaws may have been used as part of a targeted government-backed or mercenary spyware attack.
The security update has introduced stronger checks to detect malicious activity.
Apple has also improved how devices manage and track data when iPhone users are using a Safari web browser.
iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
- Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
- Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
- Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
- Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen, then tap in the bar and type a currency (like €200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
- Check if you’re due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you’re down to 80% capacity. If you’re below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
- Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier
James McClean has his say on EFL measure introduced to protect him from fan abuse when leaving the pitch
JAMES McClean has welcomed the ‘common sense’ EFL measure designed to protect him from fan abuse – while insisting ‘I didn’t ask for it’.
The Ireland legend is subjected to hateful jeering all year round from some opposition fans but it is heightened around November and Britain’s Remembrance Day commemorations.
Every year since moving across to England in 2011 he has eloquently outlined why wearing a poppy would, in his view, betray the memory of Irish citizens killed by the British Army – namely the 14 unarmed Bloody Sunday protesters in his native Derry in 1972.
In spite of this, the sustained abuse directed at him and his young family remains vitriolic.
In September one Birmingham City hooligan tossed a cup of Bovril at him as he made his way off the pitch after being substituted.
Thanks to the new EFL directive, he and any other player who is likely to face heat from rival fans, will now be allowed to exit the pitch as the crow flies rather than having to leave the playing surface and walk around its perimeter.
The 35-year-old appeared on talkSPORT to give his reaction to the new allowance which came as as much of a surprise to him as it did everyone else.
He admitted: “It’s not something I’ve asked for, so it was quite a shock to see it to be honest.
“It’s definitely welcome because, not just for me, but for anyone.
“I find that a very stupid rule anyway – leaving the pitch at the nearest exit – you’re putting yourself in a situation where players have to walk around the outside of the pitch, and, especially, players playing away…and you can get idiots.
“It’s very hard to control thousands of idiots if you’re a steward or police if people wanna throw things, if people wanna shout abuse – not everybody can be controlled.
“It just takes away the [off] anything stupid happening really, common sense has prevailed let’s say!”
The Wrexham captain went on to add that his manager Phil Parkinson had approached him after that September example to let him know that the club were looking to bring in some sort of change to reduce instances like it from continually occurring.
He added: “I didn’t know about it [the letter].
“A couple of weeks ago the manager pulled me after the Birmingham incident that they were looking into doing something.
“As weeks have gone by I didn’t hear anything, didn’t really pay attention, to be honest, and then yesterday when it broke I’ve seen it like everyone else and it’s welcome.
“That’s a credit to the manager and the club because they’ve seen what’s happened at Birmingham and they took action.
“Like I said, that’s not something I’ve asked for but it’s something that I welcome quite clearly.”
To close out the interview with Jim White, McClean was asked if his more than a decade-long stand will have ‘all been worth it’.
The Creggan man then proceeded to lay out his perspective and frustration for how much traction it gathers every November.
“I think you just don’t compromise your beliefs, regardless, so in that sense… I have a different upbringing.
“I have different views from other peoples. And like I touched on, I’m fed up repeating myself.
“But the reason I have to keep repeating myself is because every single year around November, the news outlets, they just recycle the same story over and over.
‘IT’S CLICKBAIT’
“And it just brings traction. It’s clickbait. It’s to bring attention to it and every year, every year they seemed shocked.
“I don’t know about you, I am and I’m sure a lot of people are, we’re still talking about this 12 years on. Give it a rest. No one cares.
“At the end of the day, someone wearing something, or somebody to believe in something else, see if it doesn’t affect my day to day business or affect my life, then I don’t care, so I don’t understand how me not wearing a poppy or me having different beliefs has an effect on someone else.
“So I’ll put it quite simple. You ask someone from Birmingham, you ask someone from Canary Wharf or Brighton would they wear a symbol that honours Ireland’s patriotic dead, let’s put it, of course they wouldn’t because they would see it as disrespectful.
“So, why am I expected to wear something because if I wore something that symbolised the British army… then it would be disrespectful for the people in my hometown.
“So it’s very simple in that regard.
“So I just don’t understand, I just can’t get my head around how it’s made out to be such a big deal year in year out.”
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