Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
WORKING FOR YOU Unfair assessments of cold weather payments
It’s now officially springtime and, with its arrival, we will hopefully see some better weather.
An issue that became apparent in my office when the Beast from the East reared its ugly head was that of cold weather payments.
I have been astounded to find out that Coatbridge has only qualified for two cold weather payments since November 1 last year, while the rest of North Lanarkshire has qualified for four.
This is due to the fact that the weather station used to determine Coatbridge’s temperature, and subsequently whether residents are due a payment, is in Bishopton, Renfrewshire.
This is despite other areas being assessed by the station in Salsburgh.
This seems unfair to me, and I have written to the Department for Woek & Pensions to ask them to investigate this anomaly as a matter of urgency.
As the local MP I felt very proud to represent the Westminster Parliament at the Coatbridge St Patrick’s Day celebrations on Saturday.
Congratulations to Tom Nolan and the many other hard-working organisers who made the day a fantastic success.
I was reminded on the day of the important contribution that people of Irish descent make to Coatbridge, and to our modern Scotland.
I recently organised a Westminster Hall debate on what support our country can provide for refugee children; specifically calling on the government to change the immigration rules to allow refugee children with family to be reunited with relatives here in the UK.
Colleagues from all parties, and representing constituencies in all four nations of the United Kingdom, joined me in calling for this debate.
The debate came before a vote I attended last Friday on Angus MacNeil’s bill to reunite refugee families and ease the UK government’s “inhumane” immigration rules.
Despite the government’s opposition, the bill passed its Second Reading in Parliament with the backing of Labour, SNP, Conservative, Lib Dem, Plaid Cymru, Green and DUP MPs.
The bill will now proceed to committee stage for further scrutiny and amendments.
Finally, I’ve recently had a review of my regular surgeries and made a number of changes.
They will now be held on the following dates and times: this Friday, Moodiesburn Pivot centre at 2pm and Chryston cultural centre at 3pm; Friday, April 13, Glenboig community centre at 1pm, Charlotte Toal centre at 2pm and the Municipal Buildings on Kildonan Street at 3pm.
If you would like to discuss any issues with me, please give my office a call on 01236 434565, email me at hugh. gaffney.mp@parliament.uk, or attend one of my surgeries as advertised on my Facebook and Twitter accounts.
The weather station used to determine Coatbridge’s payment is in Bishopton, Renfrewshire, not Salsburgh . . .