Frozen out!

Measurements made at two different weather centres during the cold snap between Christmas and New Year has meant folk got different payments depending on where they lived.

In Leigh, pensioners have received two payments of £8.50 because their temperatures are monitored in Crosby on Merseyside -where it's been officially chilly.

But those people in Atherton and Tyldesley only had one payment because their temperatures are monitored at Manchester Airport - where it was reckoned to have been warmer.

It means people living just a few yards apart on different sides of the boarder between Leigh and Atherton have "officially" experienced completely different weather.

Pictured are resident Jean Lamb, aged 53, of Chanters Avenue in Atherton, who uncovered the barmy situation when she received just one cold weather payment while her daughter Julie Lamb, 26, from Leigh, received two.

Mrs Lamb said: "I couldn't believe my ears. I rang up to find out why I had only got one and the woman at the benefits agency said only Leigh was being given two because Atherton and Tyldesley weren't as cold.

"It is absolutely laughable if it wasn't so serious for some people. I'm not hard up but for some it will mean a big difference.

"I think it's absolutely stupid. I only live a quarter of a mile from Leigh. It's the same temperature in Atherton as it is in Leigh. I have never heard anything as daft in my life as saying that Atherton wasn't as cold as Leigh."

The cold weather payments are triggered by an average temperature of at least zero degrees Celsius for a seven day period.

In Crosby it was below zero twice - once between Christmas Eve and December 30 and again between January 16 and January 22 this year.

However at Manchester Airport, it was only cold enough to trigger payments once - between Christmas Eve and December 30.

Cold weather cheques are sent out automatically to elderly on the minimum income guarantee and other vulnerable people on income support or income based job seeker's allowances who have young children or are registered disabled.

they are on top of the £200 lump sum winter fuel payment which were given to pensioners last year.

Those people living in the Manchester postal districts - including Atherton and Tyldesley - are monitored at Manchester airport while the Wigan postal district is monitored at Crosby.

Cllr Robert Bleakly, who was contacted by Mrs Lamb, said he was going to write to the Secretary of State for Social Security to complain about the unfair system.

He said: "It's ludicrous. I find it very strange that they say it's warmer in Leigh than Atherton. If anything it's the other way around because Leigh is sheltered in a valley. It seems to be Costa Del Bent and Bongs versus Siberian Leigh."

He added: "The bin men couldn't get to Atherton the same as they couldn't get to Leigh it's affected everyone the same. There are a lot of pensioners and needy people in Tyldesley and Atherton who've missed out and I think it's a disgrace."

Manager of the Leigh Age Concern branch in Bradshawgate, Marie Bent, also criticised the payment system and said Age Concern had been lobbying to change it.

She said: "There's an anomaly. It is something that Age Concern is trying to tackle nationally. It causes a lot of concern and hardship. Often the temperatures are just as cold in one side of the borough as the other and it's just a question of where the dividing line is."

Even the department of social security has admitted that the system is a "lottery".

Spokesman John Lees said: "The cold weather periods are determined from information supplied by the meteorological office gathered from a network of weather stations around the country.

"Cold weather payments are triggered when the average daily temperature for the last seven days has been zero degrees or below or the average daytime temperature for that day and the next six days is forecast to be zero degrees or below."