60 year old friend is freezing

SailorSam

I know it's a little late now but i pay £13.50 a month with Domestic General for £1500 cover on my central heating, i think it's worth it to be worry free.
Once your friend gets her heating going, they should get cover before the winter gets worse.

Pincher

What did people do before Warmfront?

The majority of "poor" people lived in council houses, paying unrealistically low rent. All the building maintenance, including boiler maintenance, were done at tax payer's expense. Imagine the building maintenance costs the council would have to pay for if these council houses were not sold off as part of Margaret Thatcher's "Right To Buy" initiative.

If you were on a low income, you were not a home owner,
you paid your subsidised rent, and let the council replace the boiler.
These were happy people, because somebody else picked up the bill, and somebody else fixed things when they break.

The dream of home ownership is a nightmare if you cannot afford it. There was a documentary about the American Mid-West, with the train companies luring people into selling up back East and setting up homesteads on the new frontier. The farms could never support the families, and the voice-over saying: "Imagine the frantic desperation of pencils scratching away into the night at a household budget that will never balance and the spectre of foreclosure looms ever closer." Familiar to the casualties of the Right To Buy, I expect.

It is indeed a master stroke to get rid of a massive housing stock in need of major upgrade, and then raise the bar, so that the new owner has to put in Band A boilers, TRVs, double glazing and insulation. If they don't, they get a low score on the Energy Perfromance Certificate, and have problems sellng their house.

The Warmfront type scheme is far cheaper than providing council housing. It is a Band-Aid plaster to patch up a deliberate removal of welfare support, resulting in a swarm of lemming home owners unprepared for home ownership.

hrafndot

Can I make a suggestion. If your friend is on IB then she will have very little money if any by now. She will need as much kindness as you can give her as there will be shocks along the line when she migrates to ESA.

Kindness is the soul food she will need and I think that's the most important thing you are giving her. I went to the sainsbury savacentre during the saleand got thermal socks, they were very cheap and warm as toast.

Warm feet also and warm head. Fingers will become chilled if the circulation is poor.

There are other people's suggestions that will help, but keep the energy guzzlers like oil electric heaters and fan heaters at a minimum.

Ask at the Council for a benefits advisor, these are available as a council service, there will be a scheme running called Every Pound Counts or similar which will help with this.

There will also be a council disability and independent living organisation. You should see if she can get their help. Perhaps look into the possibility of an European Social Find Grant, which may fix or even replace the boiler.

Also ask for an emergency visit/appointment from social services, make sure the person is at manager level.

Is the home her own; housing assn or council. Tell her to go to the CAB for general advice on her situation.

There have always been grants available, over the past 30 years or more. The aim has been, overall, with these grants is to make sure that the housing stock in urban areas is kept to a reasonable standard. There was a massive London wide scheme run by County Hall which had commenced, courtesy of Boris.

This was an universal to both social and private housing. Who knows what will happen now, but I suspect it will still move ahead.

This is regardless of ownership, the sensible make it their business to understand funding streams and make use of these grants.

Of course fraud exists alongside Warm Front, but if you look at it alongside the large scale fraud going on in all echelons of finance, all over Europe. I think its a bit pointless to blame it all on the old, the poor and the sick.

Does she have a disability, I would suspect she has if she is Long term IB. This will make her have poor circulation and she will feel the cold even more, being immobile. There is a provision in the disabled facilities grant for the provision of or upgrading of central heating.

If Local Council Social Services are sluggish or difficult, speak to a manager and mention "risk assessment" in terms of your friend. If this does not work, perhaps ask for a copy of the complaints procedure and take this to your friend's ward councillor.

Talk to her about getting social services' help with this situation. Age as well, as back up, but they're all hard pressed.

I would be more inclined to go to a local gas safe engineer for a repair (the manufacturer of the boiler will know of local engineers). I say this because the replacement would have to be a condensing boiler, no alternative, but existing boilers can be repaired.

A condensing combi will be much cheaper to run, so that's another consideration.

Go for a quality contractor. British gas ARE expensive and its a complete lottery as to whether you get the solution you need.

25 years is no great age for a boiler but this depends on how well it has been maintained and how legally compliant it is, but repair is cheapest for the time being.

good luck with all this.

Gerrard_8_lfc

hrafndot wrote: »

This is regardless of ownership, the sensible make it their business to understand funding streams and make use of these grants. Those who don't just grumble and moan on behalf of "the Taxpayer".

I have thanked your post because the advice you gave is good. However

The tax payer you portrait as the bad guy here is funding all these services you name and if it is so sensible to rely on social services why should anyone buy a property.

What If the "Tax Payers" Said enough is enough would people on benefits support them in most areas ?

hrafndot wrote: »

Go for a quality contractor. British gas ARE expensive and its a complete lottery as to whether you get the solution you need.

The OP didn't mention BG and BG are not always the most expensive as someone pointed out the Fix Price Repair deal can be competitve depending on the job.

brewerdave

C_Mababejive wrote: »

I hope he didnt bypass a safety device...

MY THOUGHT EXACTLY -Thermocouple cut out perhaps?:eek:

Pincher

And she is precisely the kind of person who would shutdown all but one radiator to save money; and if that radiator has a TRV set to an economical 2, that will close automatically. The boiler will just keep heating without a thermocouple cut out, until you know what.

Hopefully the brother in law opened extra radiator valves to provide sufficient heat dump.

macman

OP, since this thread has gone largely off-topic, the most useful thing you can do is to post the make and model of the boiler, and find out what part your friend has been told is required. It may well be available (despite what she was told), but no one can help you source it without that info.

littleminxof44

I'm 70 living with daughter and grandson aged 9 years. The boiler has broken down. The advice is to ring the gas board but at present they are only dealing with their own 'Home Care Customers', due to demand. Does anyone know who else one can appeal to, At present, I'm staying in bed with layers of clothes and a hot water bottle - having bronchitis isn't being helped much either, Any help would be appreciated.

[Deleted User]

littleminx can you not buy yourself a small electric heater out of your £250 winter fuel payment and then stay in one warm room

macman

littleminxof44 wrote: »

I'm 70 living with daughter and grandson aged 9 years. The boiler has broken down. The advice is to ring the gas board but at present they are only dealing with their own 'Home Care Customers', due to demand. Does anyone know who else one can appeal to, At present, I'm staying in bed with layers of clothes and a hot water bottle - having bronchitis isn't being helped much either, Any help would be appreciated.

Who is the 'gas board'-I presume you mean BG?
Just call a local recommended GSR-RGI (Gas Safe Register- Registered Gas Installer) who is familiar with your boiler make and model, hopefully they can sort you out without too much delay (though RGI's are obviously very busy at present).
If you give more info about the fault, someone on here might be able to give you some advice on how to fix it. Make and model?