Help with heating costs?

watney

I was paying a £127.14 per month for gas and electric with E-On on their Staywarm tarrif because I was classed as a high energy user. When I informed them that I was getting Disability Living Allowance;they reduced my monthly payments to £75.43 and gave me £413.68 refund.They also arranged for me to have an energy saving checkup, the result of which I got free loft And cavity wall insulation.

calleyw

swecri wrote: »

calleyw wrote: »

Lazy Daisy,


So we live on part time wages and my husbands DLA/IB with no extra help. He takes 5 different tablets a day he does not get free prescriptions so have to have a PPC at nearly a £100 a year.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1230841

you may be able to apply for 'free prescriptions' on the NHS through the medical exemption scheme. I take 17 pills a day and just couldn't afford it, so I applied for a medical exemption certificate and had one issued...It was such a relief!

We don't get any help because we have savings and I work too few hours to get working tax credits.

I don't think we can claim under the above as my husband even though he gets higher rate mobility.

Yours

Calley

Celtic_Angel

Thanks Sandra, I never knew about this i am a disabled lady i live alone and i am so worried about winter, i have real mobilty problems which result in poor circulation, so i will call Scottish power tomorrow , fingers crossed, i will let you know if i get anywhere.
Bless you for sharing the information, i am very grateful to you.
Angel X

Chris_Gurr

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If you're claiming DLA and/or IB, surely this is to cover the extra expenses such as these?

This is a commonly held misconception regarding DLA; DLA is specifically paid to cover the cost of care or mobility and not, as Gordon Brown recently said, re cancer patients, to cover the cost of heating. Just try to claim DLA on the grounds that you can not pay your heating bill and i am sure this will be made quite clear. As for IB there may be a small element of this benefit which is supposed to cover additional heating costs, but under the present circumstances it wont help much. the situation is particularly bad for people who receive contributions based IB, with no IS element, as they do not qualify for any heating costs assistance but usually receive less than £5 per week more than the people who receive an IS component. Hope this clarifies matters for you.

Homemade_2

travistowers wrote: »

hi louise i also have m.s and suffer the same way as you from the cold.as i,m sat here my right foot is that cold it feels as though it is going to drop off.it does'nt help putting more layers on.my husband is on incapacity benefit and with all the rising costs of fuel we dare'nt put the heating on.we have a pre payment meter for the electric so for extra warmth we use a halogen heater.i.ve visited the C A B on a couple of occasions and to be honest i did,nt find them very helpful.(maybe just me).i hope there is some help somewhere for people with M S and other illnesses that the cold affects them. travistowers;)

Any reason why you cant use a hot water bottle or a microwave heat pad? These would be better for cold extremities rather that direct heat anyway.

Homemade_2

chelleybelley wrote: »

wondering if anyone has had this happen to them and what to expect.... i sent off my renewal forms for the dla on the 22.09.08 which i recieved a letter back from them 2 wks later to say they received.2 wks ago i had a phone call from them to say that the forms had gone "adrift" i told them that i was not very impressed because as we all no these forms can take hours to fill out so after having my 2 minutes of ranting down the phone i agreed to fill in the forms again.. they said that the forms would be sent out first class that day and to expect them on the tues.on tues no forms so i rang them and they said that as i had "refused" to fill them out that they would arrange for a gp to visit me...... at which point i had stated i had never refused to fill out the forms and that the man the day b4 must have got it wrong.... so the team leader said she would send out the forms that day again....wed still no forms:mad: so again i rang them with a promise they would be there by the end of the wk.... i left it until the mon...still no forms so rang them again and this time recieved the forms on the tues..have filled them out returned them recorded delivery and today i recieved a call from a gp to say they would be doing a home visit on wed i explained that i had filled out the forms as she stated that the reason for this visit is because i have refused to fill out the forms gggrrrr...ok well pointless me doing forms and sending them off but what can i expect from her visit on wed??have looked up some things on net and it says gps will snoop around your house looking for things (not sure what) or that a visit can be damaging to ur renewal has anyone had a medical visit at home and if so how helpful we're they and what will happen...?

First off, the doc cant go snooping around your home unless you let him, so if he asks to use the bathroom and you dont want him in there, say no. (not sure what would be in the bathroom anyway)

Secondly, he is there to assess your illness and he will report on what he finds. It might affect your claim because he might report differently to what you claim in the forms, but thats just how it goes for a lot of claimants.

misty_blue_2

Homemade wrote: »

Any reason why you cant use a hot water bottle or a microwave heat pad? These would be better for cold extremities rather that direct heat anyway.

For some people yes there is very good reason

I suffer with MS too, i am
bedridden for most of the day, but not only that i suffer from being touch sensitive.
Meaning i can bear very little touching my skin, so direct heat on to my skin is impossible.
I have to wear the lightest things i can stand in bed (ie a very thin cotton covering over my top, nothing on my legs)
I cannot bear the duvet touching me, so i have to have a blanket lifter to raise this off me, so i cannot tuck things around me to keep warm
Also there is the pins and needles sensation which even if i could stand heat directly on to my skin, i coundnt tell if i was burning myself.
Also having to be turned in bed every 2 hours to stop bed sores occuring makes it very difficult to get warm before you need to be turned again disturbing any warmth you have manage to get.
hope that makes sense

Paparika

Careful_with_that_Axe wrote: »

Have you considered a halogen heater for the living room? They are very effective and quite cheap to run.
I have Reynaulds in my feet and find that this and a snuggly blanket keep me comfortable in the living room when its cold.

I just bought some halogen heaters and i thought they were the most expensive things to use.....my electric dial was getting dizzy with the speed it was spinning

Trialia

I'm worried about heating costs, too; I just accepted an offer of a one-bedroom ground-floor flat from my local council, but so far can only estimate what the heating is going to cost for just me, and I'm a bit worried about it as, like a lot of other people on this thread, I have to keep warm due to disability (I have Raynaud's, fibromyalgia and hypermobility-type Ehlers-Danlos syndrome). So I'm trying to find what will be least expensive for me - the flat has under-floor electric heating, but I don't think it has gas. I'll know in a week or two, I guess...