Below-freezing temperatures are still regularly being recorded across Tayside at night, but extra cold weather payments of £25 for eligible households are only triggered when the average temperature remains below zero for a consecutive week-long period.

Forum chairman Jim McAulay said he believed the current system hit “the poorest in society” and all older people should receive the payout regardless of whether they were on benefits or not.

He added, “We feel there should have been an extra payment made to pensioners over the winter period.

“We are totally opposed to the means-tested system. The state pension is a benefit not a give-out.

“We feel if they paid out universally they could use the tax system to take back from those who don’t need it. The current system hits the poorest of society.”

Councillor Ian Borthwick, a veteran campaigner for the elderly, said there was “no justification” in Britain today for anyone to be left freezing in their own homes.

He said the state pension level and associated benefits had to be adequate to allow all older people to heat their homes and remain in comfort during particularly cold snaps.

He said the levels of deaths of older people increased during the winter as it had been proven that exposure to the cold could exacerbate pre-existing medical conditions in vulnerable people.

Councillor Borthwick also pointed out studies had shown it cost 30% less to heat a home in Brighton than it did in Dundee, but the state pension remained the same across the UK.

He said, “Older people are more likely to be fuel poor than any other section of the population and the oldest households — those in their 80s and so on — are the most likely to be in extreme fuel poverty.

“There is no easy solution, but the point is that it comes down to a lack of adequate income and also to a very imprecise system where older people who are marginally above the entitlement level (for cold weather payments) lose out as a consequence of making some provision for themselves during their lives.

“The government has done a lot of work in providing central heating systems and so on — and they have been effective — but people have got to be able to pay to run them.”

Cold weather payments are administered by the Department of Work and Pensions to those on pension credit, income support or income-based jobseeker’s allowance, or receiving other payments such as disability or disabled child premiums.

A DWP spokesperson said, “This year we have paid in excess of £40million in Cold Weather Payments in Scotland alone to 400,000 of the most vulnerable people.

“The Cold Weather Payment was tripled last year from £8.50 to £25 and this has been maintained this year.

“We are making every effort to ensure pensioners keep warm . Most people aged 60 or over receive a Winter Fuel Payment.

“This has been increased for winter 2009/10 to £250 (from £200) for households with someone aged 60-79 and £400 (from £300) for the over-80s.”

The UK Government increased the payments from £8.50, but Scottish Secretary Jim Murphy said in January that giving the cold weather payments to all pensioners would be “wrong”.

That decision has come under fire from various opposition politicians and the Scottish Government’s housing and communities minister Alex Neil last month wrote to the UK Government to request an increase in payments for vulnerable households.

His letter also pointed out that Scots’ heating costs are higher than in England.