House just been valued

lostinrates

Both by father and husband have an annoying habit (I think DH caught it from my father) of using a torch should they need to get up in the night.

I believe the idea is not to disturb anyone else with lights going on and off rather than money saving but pretty much nothing is less disturbing that awakeing to someone moving towards the bed with a torch. (I find it all ridiculous, I pretty much know where everything is so its not hard to walk to the bathroom without turning a light on).

LillyJ

People do have the right to chose what they spend their money on, but Dudleyboy, quite how do you expect Social Services to know about cases like the one I quote?
Do you propose they go into every elderly person's house and check the wardrobes for cash? No?
I am all for putting on extra layers, that is good for the environment, your pocket and your health. Not putting on the heating and not eating properly cos you want to save a few bob (then spending days/weeks/months lingering in a hospital ward taking up vital bed space) is just ridiculous.

dudleyboy

LillyJ wrote: »

People do have the right to chose what they spend their money on, but Dudleyboy, quite how do you expect Social Services to know about cases like the one I quote?
Do you propose they go into every elderly person's house and check the wardrobes for cash? No?
I am all for putting on extra layers, that is good for the environment, your pocket and your health. Not putting on the heating and not eating properly cos you want to save a few bob (then spending days/weeks/months lingering in a hospital ward taking up vital bed space) is just ridiculous.

I agree but what is the solution? I think the voucher idea is a good one but if people have tens of thousands of pounds stashed away in cash then they shouldn't really be entitled to them as they can actually afford the heating. Convincing them to part with that money through public announcements is the best the government can do but I think they already do that.

I honestly don't know what the answer is. I would hope that elderly people's families and friends check up on them and ensure that they're ok. For those without, it should be the role of social services, but only they can be alerted to a problem by someone else (such as a neighbour or a hospital). As you say, they can't go knocking door to door.

This discussion has reminded me of a news item I saw on TV. Whether it was regional or national I forget but the elderly person (probably in their early 70s) was talking about fuel poverty, food inflation and the general cost of living and how difficult it was to make ends meet. I couldn't help but notice the contents of their open kitchen cupboard and on the counter: Heinz baked beans (the small cans!), Kingsmill bread, Kellogg's cereal, a small packet of 80 Tetley's teabags... I could go on.

Perhaps, again, a generational thing but it was difficult to listen to this person complaining about the prospect of fuel poverty and saying how the government should help them when I was there, socks and jumper on, eating food from my local Aldi.

When Martin warned in his email and on the radio that the energy prices were about to rocket the first thing I did was contact my mother (late 50s) and grandmother (late 80s). I switched and capped and, gladly, my grandmother agreed for me to switch and cap her supplier too. My mum wasn't interested saying "oh I can't be bothered with all that" and now complains that her gas bill has gone up by 35%.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water...

LillyJ

dudleyboy wrote: »

I agree but what is the solution? I think the voucher idea is a good one but if people have tens of thousands of pounds stashed away in cash then they shouldn't really be entitled to them as they can actually afford the heating. Convincing them to part with that money through public announcements is the best the government can do but I think they already do that.

I honestly don't know what the answer is. I would hope that elderly people's families and friends check up on them and ensure that they're ok. For those without, it should be the role of social services, but only they can be alerted to a problem by someone else (such as a neighbour or a hospital). As you say, they can't go knocking door to door.

This discussion has reminded me of a news item I saw on TV. Whether it was regional or national I forget but the elderly person (probably in their early 70s) was talking about fuel poverty, food inflation and the general cost of living and how difficult it was to make ends meet. I couldn't help but notice the contents of their open kitchen cupboard and on the counter: Heinz baked beans (the small cans!), Kingsmill bread, Kellogg's cereal, a small packet of 80 Tetley's teabags... I could go on.

Perhaps, again, a generational thing but it was difficult to listen to this person complaining about the prospect of fuel poverty and saying how the government should help them when I was there, socks and jumper on, eating food from my local Aldi.

When Martin warned in his email and on the radio that the energy prices were about to rocket the first thing I did was contact my mother (late 50s) and grandmother (late 80s). I switched and capped and, gladly, my grandmother agreed for me to switch and cap her supplier too. My mum wasn't interested saying "oh I can't be bothered with all that" and now complains that her gas bill has gone up by 35%.

As they say, you can lead a horse to water...

I saw that same news item, it was on the midlands news. It annoyed me too!
The thing is that heating allowance isn't means tested - everyone gets it. Which is fair enough in some ways, but I really think it should be vouchers - otherwise it just gets stashed away by a lot of people.

Hospitals are full of old people who either don't have any relatives or their relatives don't care enough to visit. On Christmas eve or before bank holidays you get lots of people dropping old people off at hospital (claiming they have become more confused or some other nonsense) to get rid of them. (Seriously.) I know it can be difficult looking after old people but there are the proper channels that should be gone through ie respite. So getting relatives to check they have their heating on is impractical for a large number of old people.

I think the gas companies could do a lot more to help - eg they need a list of all the vulnerable people etc so they don't get cut off if they miss a payment through being ill or whatever.

Neighbours could do a lot more as well. I had a 98 year old man and his 89 year old wife living 2 doors down when we were students. Me and my housemates used to check on them every couple of days and go and make sure they didn't need a lightbulb changing or whatever (we were frightened to death of them climbing on chairs!). They repaid us in endless cups of tea and cake. One night when we knocked, no one answered. We were worried sick until we heard the man shouting for us to come round the back. We went in and found them both upstairs in bed with the flu. We called the doctor out who said they didn't need to go to hospital but gave them a good check over. It could have been much worse, and if they didn't have people calling in on them who knows what could have happened?

People really need to look after old people in this country more, it really gets on my nerves!