As a sexagenarian I am entitled to a yearly £250 government handout to enable me to pay for heating over the winter and not freeze to death like the Merrys seem intent on doing. The money was deposited in my bank account a couple of weeks ago and no doubt added a little more to the huge deficit.
If I were not me, I would object to the government paying me that because if I'm honest I don't really need it, although it came in handy to pay for a nice new tripod with carbon fibre legs for my camera. The trouble is, if they means tested it, then they'd have another army of government officials doubling or trebling the outlay just to ensure I was entitled to it, so maybe this is the best way after all.
But what the government aren't doing is offering to increase the insulation in my loft instead so they can make smaller payments next year and thereafter. You have to be 70 years old to be eligible for one.
Now this is patently stupid, because the people who waste the most energy are those with teenage kids in large houses, and it is THOSE houses that should be insulated first to achieve the greatest carbon returns.
The government is throwing money at other projects while less than 10% of the stimulus package has gone on green projects. Around £4 billion over four years would keep gangs of insulation installers going throughout the downturn and at the end of it every loft in the land would be adequately insulated. The savings would be huge.
That makes sense to me. It's always better to make a long term improvement than a regular short term one. Trouble is I suppose that governments think in terms of the next election.
However if they are sticking to their method then I think they should bring the age limit down (just a little) to include me too 
The cold weather payment should not be paid as it is in the run up to Christmas. Pensioners who do need it just spend the money on christmas presents and not on gas bills. The biggest gas bill is always the february one anyway so it should be paid then.
They will do your insulation at a discount (allegedly) but unless you are in the magic circle of people on the right benefits you have to pay towards it. It is a few hundred pounds I believe.
Most power companies are forced by law to have insulation schemes.
They won't do mine even if I do pay as I require building works to make it possible and they only do the easy cases. Once the easy cases were mostly all done, they started again on topped up insulation in the already done easy case houses and left the likes of me undone.
So I agree they are not motivated by actual saving energy but on ticking boxes for bonuses.
We do have the heating on now. The Merrys-who-pay-the-bills may be tough as stringy old beans, the merry-children not-so 
When they have paid more bills they will be more bean like.
I hate the cold, my mum claims never to have felt the cold and we were so miserable as children as no money was ever diverted to the provision of heating. People today have no idea.
I vowed when I was paying the bills to always have heating on but it is just not affordable all the time, however I do have heating on for short times in relevant rooms and it is always on when I am sick. Funding has been set aside just in case.