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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be concerned about people who can't afford heating in this weather as well as the homeless

76 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 20:36

Feeling slightly sad about anyone who can't afford to put their heating on, or who has no warm clothes or electricity to make a hot drink or meal. Especially older people or families with small children, or ill people.

I moved from a very damp, chilly, crumbling down house a couple of months ago - I was there from February this year and so thank my lucky stars I'm not there during this bitterly cold weather. Not everyone is lucky enough to be somewhere warm and dry.

I can't believe in 2017 this is a problem here in the UK, it's like something from Dickens Sad

That's leaving out the people who are actually outside in this snow and sleet. I've tried googling but can't find out - will their be an extra push from councils to try and get emergency shelter for people at the moment?

OP posts:
WellAlwaysHaveParis · 10/12/2017 21:19

YANBU Flowers:(

I went for a run today and it was snowing really heavily. I was bloody freezing, and then it crossed my mind about everyone who works outside in these temperatures or anyone who is spending the night outside or with no heating :( it's awful. I'm sure these kinds of temperatures are cold enough to kill people. It's horrific to think that people still die of cold in this day and age, as you've pointed out in your OP :(

There are some suggestions about how to help effectively on the thread about how to help homeless people effectively. But it would be good if we could also use this thread to come up with some useful ideas too.

myusernameisnotmyusername · 10/12/2017 21:22

YANBU. I live in Birmingham and feel very sad about the homeless people in any weather never mind the amount of snow we've had. Not to mention the poor and elderly. No one should have no Home and no heating.

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 22:48

I will look for the other thread about how to best help homeless folks, it sounds worth a read. Any time I go out and about in London, there are so many.

Around Victoria/ the theatre district are really bad. As is Camden. They're just the bits I frequently am walking around so I guess a lot of London is just as bad, as well as a lot of urban centres across Britain.

I read that numbers of deaths among the eldery population had gone up a lot in the last year or two, as well. They can't afford heat. FFS!

It twists my heart to think that tonight there are people sitting freezing, damaging their health severely. The fucking misery of it all.

I'm sorry for ranting - people suffering acute hunger and cold right now in the UK just shocks me to the core, and there but for the grace of God go I and all that... I think I need to ring round foodbanks and maybe soup kitchens or something tomorrow and try to get some volunteering. I need to do something practical to help. Not sure what though!!

OP posts:
MyBrilliantDisguise · 10/12/2017 22:49

I don't understand why people on benefits and/or with young children can't get the winter fuel allowance that pensioners get.

selassi · 10/12/2017 22:53

so making a thread on mum's net is going to help them how?

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 22:56

Selassi, brace yourself because this may shock you - I am allowed to discuss my thoughts and feelings about something I find upsetting, on Mumsnet.

I have not claimed making a thread will help any people struggling with cold Hmm

OP posts:
Whisky2014 · 10/12/2017 22:56

selassi umm maybe to get some help or suggestions? To spread awareness?
Why not start a thread?

PickAChew · 10/12/2017 22:57

Yanbu.

Just moved house and the controller for the heating is knackered. We have the skills to jump start it for a while and the finances to fix it. As adults, DH and I can work around the bits when it's not responding and cold, but ds1 is struggling with it. Bringing kids up in a cold house that you can't make not cold, for any reason has to be tough.

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 22:58

Yep Whisky exactly - there's already been a useful suggestion to look at a thread of ideas about how to help the homeless in practical ways.

OP posts:
Fluffyears · 10/12/2017 22:59

People on low incomes can get a warm home grant. They apply via their supplier and get a credit added to their bill. There are several extra shelters open in London and Glasgow and details have been posted onto Facebook.

ThisLittleKitty · 10/12/2017 23:01

Not everyone gets that grant. They select certain people. I missed out this year.

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 23:07

Glad to hear there are extra shelters open in some cities.

OP posts:
Becca19962014 · 10/12/2017 23:10

The warm home grant varies from supplier to supplier and some require you to stay with that supplier for a certain amount of time (at least a year).

The only people who automatically get it are those on the guarantee element of pension credit.

There's information here www.gov.uk/the-warm-home-discount-scheme

Haudyerwheesht · 10/12/2017 23:12

Yanbu. There was a big sleep out in Edinburgh last night with people being sponsored to spend the night outside but (understandably) they all had thermal sleeping bags and knew that ultimately they were safe. It must just be horrific.

justinelibertine · 10/12/2017 23:14

Our heating packed in today. We noticed at 5pm when it didn't come on as expected and the cold was unbareable within 2 hours. Poor DD had goose pimples when I undressed her ready for bed. We are lucky enough to have got it sorted by 10:30, but it really brings home how awful it is that people are forced to live with little or no heat.

RE warm home. My friend who has chromic health condition and 3 kids including a 1 year old applied and due to a supplier issue won't get anything until march 2018. She is in the emergency on her meter tonight. Pre payment meters make me feel ill. They are exploitative.

I wish that everyone was warm, dry and fed tonight. It breaks my heart that children being cold at bedtime is almost the norm.

AnnaMagdalenaGluck · 10/12/2017 23:17

so making a thread on mum's net is going to help them how?

Honestly, what is the point of posting a comment like this?

The OP's post has made me think of people in fuel poverty and the homeless when, because of things in my life being a bit full on ATM, I hadn't really thought of it. Selfish, I know.
I'm going to check out the other thread on helping the homeless. There may be something I can constructively do to help which I maybe wouldn't have without this thread.
So that's how the thread has helped.

MojoMoon · 10/12/2017 23:18

The Severe Weather Emergency Provision has kicked in in London (it does whenever temps fall below zero).

Extra emergency hostel beds are open along with some other institutions including police stations that will provide emergency shelter. If you see a homeless person, you can report their location to Street link who can let them know SWEP is on.
SWEP covers everyone, even if they are not entitled to any benefits or have irregular immigration status. (Lot of hostels normally cannot taken people who are in one of those categories but it is waived for SWEP).
Other cities will have something similar.

Jellybean85 · 10/12/2017 23:19

I'm in Leeds and there has been a big push among charities and homeless shelters. I don't know how they've managed it but they've said since the extra measures were put in place not one person who walked through the door was turned away. (Sadly not something they can normally achieve due to bed limits) they also have people walking the streets making anyone out there aware of extra help. I know they're taking extra donations of coats/warm clothes
For people wanting to offer practical help

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 23:33

Wow - that's great about SWEP. I didn't know it existed! I am so glad there is some kind of safety net for the immediate crisis of being out on the streets right now, even if the bigger picture safety net isn't really there anymore.

OP posts:
mommytoboo86 · 10/12/2017 23:49

no yrnbu.
what really fucks me off though is people who sit in their massive nicely heated mansions while their 83 yo father is sitting in an upstairs 1 bed mouldy flat on his own for 12 hours with no gas, electric, milk or bread.
Unfortunately that was the reality I was faced with this afternoon when I knocked on my neighbours door to check on him. I almost cried.
x

feral · 10/12/2017 23:53

I read an article the other day about Robert Plant challenging a peer as to why he gets £200 fuel allowance when he's a millionaire.

Percy has a point!

And there's no way to decline the money!

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 23:53

Oh no Sad that is awful. Brilliant he has a neighbour like you to check in with him. Was he ok, or upset?

There are going to be many, many more people like him.

OP posts:
Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 10/12/2017 23:55

That's disgraceful that there's no way to decline the money. How is that a sensible approach to running public funds?

It makes a mockery of the taxpayer.

OP posts:
Roomba · 11/12/2017 00:03

I can't afford to put my heating on until tomorrow, and then it will only last a few hours max in this cold. If I put more on we won't eat. It's been for days now.

I can't get a warm home grant as DS has just turned 5 now so not eligible apparently.

It's a bit nippy to say the least! 8 degrees in my kid's room half an hour ago. I can't even imagine how cold the bathroom is but it aint much fun going for a wee at them moment.

But, we have a roof over our heads, warm clothes, hot water bottles and blankets, warm drinks etc. and we're healthy, so we'll live. Unlike the tens of thousands of people who die every winter in this country purely because of the cold. Shameful in the 5th/6th or (whatever we are now) largest economy in the world.

TheQueenOfWands · 11/12/2017 00:13

I'm currently in a nursing home (care worker) and despite wearing many layers and sitting by a radiator I'm so cold I could cry. I'm wearing mittens, FFS.

It's a really cold building and I reckon we'll lose a few of our frailer ones due to the cold. Shocking that this is allowed.

I'm chucking blankets on people but it's still fucking freezing.