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Help with heating

carnation

My husband as had cancer and an heart attack after chemo,I have chronic back pain,we are in our early 60s and can't get a pension,we live off his private pension which isn't a lot ,how do we get help with winter fuel as we can't

afford to have it much.

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Comments

Morgan_Alumni

Hello @carnation.

I don't know what area you're in but many councils have funds put aside to help households called Household Support Fund, it's worth checking what your local council offer.

Scope also have a free service called Disability Energy Support which may be able to help you if you live in England, Scotland or Wales. As well as practical advice and support, they have a Stay Warm scheme which can provide energy vouchers and electric blankets.

You can read more about this on our website Scope Winter Energy

WhatThe

Hello carnation and welcome to Scope 😊

Please see Scope's offer of a free electric blanket and energy voucher.

Have you applied to your fuel provider for the Warm Home Discount of £150?

Kimi87

Some suppliers might have discretionary funds so it's always worth asking.

Unfortunately from the information given they won't be eligible for Warm Home Discount (which is paid automatically).

https://www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

WhatThe

I'd also recommend a rechargeable throw, a heated blanket to wrap around yourself - it will pay for itself in energy savings. Very cheap to operate and safer than filling a hot water bottle.

carnation

Thank you for your comments,we can't get the winter fuel discount we get 20 pounds too much, looks like we will freeze

carnation

I don't know where to go,we have worked all our lives got made redundant,used all our savings to pay off the mortgage (had no choice)

Kimi87

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/963089#Comment_963089

I'm not sure what you mean by this?

Your OP stated age as early 60's so too young for Winter Fuel Payment, State Pension, Pension Credit.

You didn't mention any Income Related benefits as a possible route for Winter Home Discount- England/Wales it has to be low income and high energy costs which the Government calculate with various pieces of data. Again too young to qualify via Pension Credit

Try a benefits calculator and/or local advice agency to check you are getting everything else that you are entitled too.

https://www.gov.uk/benefits-calculators

https://advicelocal.uk/welfare-benefits

You mentioned health problems, have either of you explored entitlement to PIP?

https://www.gov.uk/pip

carnation

I get pip but it only pays for food,we are the forgotten generation,always worked paid taxes and now we cannot work we are shafted,anyone else in the same boat out there.

carnation

We have checked all the appropriate benefits etc,not entitled to anything

poppy123456

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/963110#Comment_963110

Have you actually used a benefits calculator? In a previous comment you said you were in early 60's so too young for state pension which is 66.

When was the last time either of you worked? Are you both claiming PIP or just one of you? does that PIP include the daily living part? If so are you claiming carers allowance?

Do you rent or own your own home?

FeistyPigeon

Carnation I'm in the same boat, about the same age. Kimmy and Poppy are right, you can't apply for winter fuel allowance until you reach state retirement age, currently 66 but rising to 67 shortly. You're still classed as being of "working age", even though like me you were most likely told you'd be retiring at 60. If you have savings of less than £16k you can be accepted for universal credit, with the proviso that you will have to undergo regular checkups by the jobcenter to see if you've recovered sufficiently to work.

If you are in this position + plan to apply I'd advise you do as soon as pos, as the medical criterion they're using to determine whether you are fit to work are likely to be tightened up considerably in the spring. In one respect we are still quite a lot luckier than those coming after us, there's been a lot of talk about raising retirement to 70. Of course if we lived in France, retirement would be aged 60… Increasing the retirement age here has saved goverments an absolute fortune.

If your savings discount you for universal credit, you can still apply for the support Scope and others have outlined above. What sort of home do you have? If it's like mine, no central heating / double glazing, lots of draughts etc you can apply for a warm home discount from the gov, worth £150. One thing you can do, if you can afford it + have single glazing, buy some secondary glazing, I've heard even the rolls of plastic you heat with a hairdrier are pretty good at keeping the warmth in. Haven't got the money to do that yet myself…

poppy123456

@IndignantPigeon whether there's any entitlement to Universal Credit will depend on their circumstances. Their private pension will be treated as "other" income and reduce any potential entitlement £1 for £1.

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/963322#Comment_963322

Proper double glazing with sealed air between is of course the best insulation, but if you're desperate like me with no money to pay for it, living in an old single-glazed home with draughts everywhere, it would probably be better than nothing.

A couple tested it out on the channel 4 program "How to heat your home for less this winter", which went out before Xmas, they said it was pretty good. Can't speak from experience myself, but you can pick it up pretty cheaply from somewhere like Amazon, compared to paying for double-glazing. Here's a link to the program:

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-heat-your-home-for-less-this-winter

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/963223#Comment_963223

Ah yes you're dead right Poppy, forgot to mention that. The only thing you can do, if you've still the choice, is leave your pension in it's pot until you reach state retirement age, that way DWP don't class it as income.

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/963745#Comment_963745

Hi egister, yes you're right the TV program was the usual dumbed-down stuff, didn't tell you much, but I did notice the couple seemed really surprised how good the window insulation film was. I hesitate to put links up on Scope that could be taken as adverts, but if you go to Amazon + type "secondary glazing film" in the search box, you'll see a whole load of examples to choose from. If you're thinking of getting any I'd read the comments carefully…

I hadn't heard of athermal film but gather it's to screen out sun's rays in a car, so probably the wrong stuff! You need to let the sunlight in + keep a still layer of air between the glass + the film. Ditto your solution with newspapers! I'm guessing it could work, newspaper is a pretty good insulator, but you'd end up sitting in a gloomy room with lots of mess, stuck sticky tape etc, on the windows.

You're right about keeping out draughts though. One of the most effective measures I've found so far, that I've been able to afford, is the sticky insulation foam you can put around the edges of windows. It cuts down a heck of a lot of the draughts. If you go to Amazon and search for "insulation tape for windows", that's the sort of thing I mean. The stuff I bought is the rubber foam sealing tape (white with yellow backing tape), you can get 33 feet's worth for less than £7 + dead simple to install. The best thing is you can still open the windows afterwards.

Another really good thing I've found is the draught excluders you can put along the bottom of doors, search term "draught excluder for doors". Rather more pricey but one I've got on the backdoor saves a fortune on heating in the kitchen, the wind used to blow like a gale under that door before. A good alternative is to buy / make a door snake, search "door snake draught excluder". I was lucky + picked up a lovely warm fat tiger snake one from a poundshop for… yes, a pound!

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/965225#Comment_965225

Right on all counts egister. I'd only say, sometimes can't afford newspapers! (you'd need sticky tape too…). Good to point out about CO2 + CO levels. BTW Scope has a link for free CO monitors at the moment…

WhatThe

Never use them while sleeping,

Electric (under)blankets are designed to be slept on.

WhatThe

"Many of the blankets that were brought in for testing had un-sleeved plugs, which means they were at least 36 years old, as it has been a legal requirement since 1987 for all plugs supplied to be sleeved."

FeistyPigeon

https://forum.scope.org.uk/discussion/comment/972592#Comment_972592

Yep, our state pension age is higher than virtually all european countries, bet the pension is worth less as well…

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1985472/etirement-age-every-European-country

OverlyAnxious

That must have been an old mattress. Fire regulations have required all mattresses to pass an open flame test since the 80's. They're all fire retardant nowadays.

Obviously sheets are generally flammable, and if you use certain skin creams they get absorbed into them which exacerbates that. So still not a good idea to have electrical appliances or cigarettes unattended in bed, but the room shouldn't go up like that with modern appliances and furnishings.