Fuel bills help for the elderly

The elderly are to get emergency help with fuel bills this winter, Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper confirmed today.

Cold weather payments - which come into effect once the temperature is forecast to fall to zero degrees Celsius for seven consecutive days - will be maintained at nearly £25 a week after the Chancellor tripled the amount paid out last winter.

Ms Cooper also announced that the Government was expanding a job scheme aiming to help 750,000 people into work by the end of next year.

The new "local employment partnerships", which have already helped 45,000 Londoners into work in the recession, offer training courses and other support to help employers match people to vacancies.

Ms Cooper said that the scheme has proved so successful that it has met its original target of 250,000 a year early and the target will be trebled.