About 10,000 people in Aberdeenshire, North Perthshire, the Highlands, and Dumfries and Galloway are to receive cold weather payments this week as temperatures are forecast to fall below zero for seven consecutive days.

Weather stations in Braemar, in Aberdeenshire, Dundrennan covering Dumfries and Galloway and Aviemore in the Highlands were among 48 of the UK's 76 weather stations to trigger the increased £25-a-week payment.

The bill for the payouts, which are made automatically to pensioners and vulnerable people, could cost the government up to £100m this week as the big chill made Londoners eligible for the first time in a decade.

Some 600,000 people in the UK capital will receive the £25 assistance with heating bills after the Met Office forecast average temperatures at Heathrow will remain below zero for seven days.

The cold weather payment, which has been trebled by the government this year from £8.50 to £25 a week, is paid out every time the average temperature at a weather station falls, or is forecast to fall, to 0C or below for seven consecutive days.

The £15m payout in London comes on top of 3.7 million payments totalling £93m already triggered this winter. Unusually, most of the payments will be made in England which has borne the worst of the weather. Forecasters warned that temperatures in the Midlands and the south of England could fall as low as -11C - more than 10C below the seasonal average temperature for this time of year.

The temperature at Farnborough, in rural Hampshire, was recorded at -10C yesterday. Some 278,269 claimants on Merseyside became eligible for the payment as temperatures around Liverpool dropped below zero.

Scotland's 24 weather stations have triggered cold weather payments on 26 occasions already this winter paying out £8.69m to 347,600 eligible people.

Work and Pensions Minister James Purnell said that older people should not worry about turning up the heating this week when it is cold. "That is why we've trebled the cold weather payment to £25, to put money in the pockets of the people who need it most," said Mr Purnell. "Millions of vulnerable people and pensioners are now in line for this extra help after the recent cold snap."

Mr Purnell's announcement came as charities warned that the elderly and sick urgently need help with heating bills to prevent avoidable deaths.

Government figures showed that there were 25,300 extra deaths last winter, a 7% increase on last year's figure of 23,740.

The cold weather payment, goes to pensioners, severely disabled people and families on benefits with a young or severely disabled child.

Help the Aged warned that the death rate rises by 1% to 2% for every drop of 1C in the temperature.

Spokesman Jack Neill-Hall said: "When the temperature gets as cold as it has, that becomes a huge problem."

Postcodes in the Scottish areas covered by the weather stations include: DG1, DG2, DG5, DG7, DG12, AB33, AB34, AB35, AB36, AB37, PH10, PH11, PH18, PH19, PH20, PH21, PH22, PH23, PH24, PH25 and PH26.

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