Cost of living Storytelling opportunity

sophie_scope

Hi there!

My name is Sophie and I work in the Scope Stories team. We are currently working on a campaign about the cost of living for disabled people. If you have disability-related costs that are higher than average, such as energy bills over £208 per month, we would be keen to hear from you.

If you're interested in participating, you can fill in this form, or email us at stories@scope.org.uk with any questions or for more information.

Thanks and we look forward to hearing from you!

Sophie

Tori_Scope

Thanks for sharing this @sophie_scope It looks like an exciting opportunity to help shape our work!

Hannah_Alumni

Hello @cornishmummy

Saw this opportunity with Scope and remembered your high February bill. Thought this may interest you?

cornishmummy

I shall contact them . Thanks 

Jo_2022

Hiya @sophie_scope! What a great opportunity! Thank you for this share. I may have a few friends interested in this. Best wishes Jo 😊 

sophie_scope

Thanks so much for your comment @Jo_2022 ! If your friends would like to hear more they can contact the stories email address at stories@scope.org.uk
Take care, 
Sophie  

Oxonlady

Hi @sophie_scope, I recently have had to ask my MP to lodge a complaint to the government on my behalf.
Up until last year, I was eligible to receive the Warm Home Scheme annual grant of £140, which has now risen to £150 per year. In their wisdom and at a time when electricity costs have risen, the government has excluded people like myself, who are living on low wages or Disability and sickness benefits. This grant is now only available to pensioners. 
I cannot understand why the government would do this. I have been eligible to receive the Warm Home Scheme grant for 
the last five years or so, why can't I have it now? It would have helped enormously with my January bill.
I have asked my MP to chase this up. Still no reply from the Department of Energy. 

poppy123456

Oxonlady said:

 This grant is now only available to pensioners. 

That's not correct. The WHD new rules for England and Wales means those claiming Pension Credit (not everyone of state pension age does) will automatically be entitled to it because they are in core group 1. Nothing has changed for those this year because they were automatically entitled to it in previous years.

For core group 2, you need to be claiming certain means tested benefits but they also look at the size and age of the home you live in. I've also been entitled to this for many years but sadly missed out this year because my house is "too small"

You can see the full rules here. https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

jeanlafont

gov levelling up legislation wait to see whom runs gov after elections if new party put your complaints
in a public hat up for debate in the commons review then wait forever back and forth with the law lords
green white pink papers ie hope.

 

lucylife

Oxonlady said:

Hi @sophie_scope, I recently have had to ask my MP to lodge a complaint to the government on my behalf.
Up until last year, I was eligible to receive the Warm Home Scheme annual grant of £140, which has now risen to £150 per year. In their wisdom and at a time when electricity costs have risen, the government has excluded people like myself, who are living on low wages or Disability and sickness benefits. This grant is now only available to pensioners. 
I cannot understand why the government would do this. I have been eligible to receive the Warm Home Scheme grant for 
the last five years or so, why can't I have it now? It would have helped enormously with my January bill.
I have asked my MP to chase this up. Still no reply from the Department of Energy. 

Hi, justt scrolling through messages, so although a little old, I jjst saw this and thought i would reply. I am in the opposite position to you. Despite being on a very low income and only being in receipt of benefits, I never got the grant until this year and i am definately not in the pensioner category yet.
My energy company only allowed a small amount of people to claim the grant if you didnt fall inro the automatic pensiomer catogory. On top of that , rhey only gave you about a week to apply as well. If you were unwell pr a ything rhat caused you issues so you couldnt manage to apply in that one week, you were disregarded so i was never able to manage it. Being bedbound didnt help my situation either as I needed someone to get all the bits and pieces to apply.
Therefore I love this way of doinf it currently as it means for the first time I am actualyngetting the help i need to pay a little bit of my energy bills.
I am supposed to get help with and money off necause of being on oxygen too but because i cant go and post the information they need, i dont get the suoport with that either. Being disabled is expensive. I have a hospital bed amd air matress.i use alexa and have to shop via delivery apps which isnt cheap. Lockdown was good as everyrhing went on line for a while.. Even musicals. I was in heaven. People complained. It was my normal life though and the world suddenly became more accessible for a very brief moment in time. It showed what the world could be if it tried. Of course they have all forgot ,now it is back to their lovely lives again and they csn talk about how isolating it was, forgetting for some of us, that is still our life. Sorry about dodgynspellings. Joys of kindles! Great for reading and watching , plus alexa, not for much else. 
Thats my little opinion for the night. Sorry i can get a bit much at times! 
Love and hugs
Lucyxx

Austria97

This is awful