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Yah. We have a similar problem with some of the means tested benefits, especially those directed at older people. Which is one of the problems inherent in making assistance difficult and humiliating: often the people who most need that help are deterred from seeking it when they most need it and then end up becoming a bigger cost burden on the state, when they hit absolute crisis point or preventable health problems become acute enough to warrant emergency intervention.
One of the best things the labour government did (imo) was bring in the cold weather payments for anyone claiming incapacity benefit, disability allowance, or pension credits, and for anyone above a particular age (can't recall if it was 65 or 70). Payment was triggered any time the temperature dropped below freezing for 7 consecutive days. No need to claim: the cheque arrived by post automatically.
By attaching it to particular benefit types, and age bands, and making it automatic, the government made sure that the most vulnerable groups in society had some kind of response to an extended period of cold weather; and reduced drastically the number of pensioners who die of hypothermia every year in the UK.
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