With signs that Spring is on its way, pensioners in Three Rivers may have said farewell to the cold not just for this year, but for good, thanks to pressure from the district council.

The council's executive committee unanimously called for national reform in February, when it was revealed 1.7million pensioners across the country missed out on vital heating payments last year.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Les Mead suggested that in 2009, a thousand pensioners living in Three Rivers missed each missed out on £1,700 due to unclaimed pension credit, and the accompanying benefits, such as cold weather payments.

He then attributed this to an 18 page application form and an inaccurate yardstick used to determine when the weather in the district could be classified as “cold”.

Councillors demanded that chief executive Steven Halls write a letter to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), expressing their concerns on the subject.

Now, in a reply from Helen Goodman, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the DWP, Three Rivers councillors have been promised provisional solutions to both.

Under the cold weather payments scheme, weekly supplements of £25 a week are paid to people who earn a low income to help them pay their heating bill, provided they receive certain benefits such as Pension Credit.

The temperature at a local weather station, assigned by postcode, has to drop to zero degrees Celsius or below, over a period of seven consecutive days, before it is deemed to be cold and the payments are distributed.

Councillor Mead, of Penn ward, criticised the government for this, suggesting it “put barriers in the way of our local residents” by grouping the WD postcodes covering most of the district with warmer areas of London, qualifying them for only one payment.

“Our neighbours in Amersham, Gerrards Cross, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans have received three payments for three weeks of bad weather” he added “the thought that our residents have had only one cold week this winter is patently nonsense."

Ms Goodman, who is the Labour MP for Bishop Auckland, said: “The claim process has been simplified so that claims can be made over the phone without the need for a signed claim form.

“A targeted regional campaign is being rolled out, designed to engage with local pensioners. The Pension Disability and Carers Service also carry out around 13,000 visits weekly to vulnerable customers to ensure they are receiving all the benefits they are entitled to.”

Ms Goodman also confirmed that a pilot, planned for 2010, will look at ways of making better use of the data to improve Pension Credit take-up, and that in the summer a review of the weather stations used in the scheme will take place.

She added: “We will ask the Meteorological Office to consider, in time for next winter's scheme, whether the postcodes in Three Rivers should be assigned differently and whether any new weather stations are more suitable and should be introduced to the scheme.”

Penn ward Councillor Les Mead said: "I am delighted that we have received a reply from the Minister following my motion at the last Council meeting.

"I am also glad to hear that the TRDC post codes will be reviewed and perhaps assigned differently before next winter.

"I understand about scientific accuracy but what I want is a fairer system for local pensioners and I will not be satisfied until that happens."