Child Winter Heating Assistance payments total £2.8m for 2020-21

Official statistics have been published on Child Winter Heating Assistance for 2020-2021.

More than 14,000 payments worth a combined £2.8 million were made between November and mid-March.

Child Winter Heating Assistance is a £200 payment to help families of a child on the highest rate care component of Disability Living Allowance for Children to heat their homes.

The majority of Child Winter Heating Assistance payments were made automatically without requiring an application and based on information provided by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Two thirds of payments were made for children aged 8 to 15, with 11 being the most common age for recipients (1,320). This was followed by age 12 (1,285) and age 9 (1,250).

The sex of the child in 68% of applications was recorded as male, with 30% female and 2% unknown.

Local authorities with the greatest numbers of payments were Glasgow City (1,890, 13% per cent), North Lanarkshire (1,135, 8%), Fife (1,080, 8%) and South Lanarkshire (1,055, 8%). No payments were made to families outside of Scotland.

Recipients with one eligible child or young person were awarded 95% of payments.

The full statistics publication is available on the Scottish Government website.