Shielding to ease next week/end Aug 1

[PatriciaHolm]

This afternoons briefing from Matt Hancock - "From Monday 6 July people who are shielding will be able to spend time outdoors in a group of up to six people including those outside of their household, while maintaining physical distancing. Those who are shielding and live alone or are single parents with children will also be able to create a ‘support bubble’ with one other household of any size. "

Then as of Aug 1, scheme largely coming to an end; people can go back to work if Covid-safe, and help will be limited to local authority/voluntary support.

Pretty much as announced in NI earlier, I think. Not entirely surprising.

@teabaseddiet I know it’s not really clear .

I got priority delivery from supermarkets I'd used before for delivery. Waitrose were the first to give me slots, tesco and asda took weeks and weeks. I've only ever ordered clothes for the dc from Asda but I still got priority for food.

I'm more intrigued about the delivery slots than anything now!

A while ago though, when slots and deliveries of any kind were like hen's teeth, and we had no priority, I'd stay up to queue for a midnight Tesco slots to be released. If we got one, I'd practically be on a high for two hours after!!! Ah! heady days!

@Bercows

I got priority delivery from supermarkets I'd used before for delivery. Waitrose were the first to give me slots, tesco and asda took weeks and weeks. I've only ever ordered clothes for the dc from Asda but I still got priority for food.

I think it really depends on where you live and what the demand is like in your area.

I rang up to find out what pausing shielding would mean for delivery priority

And had the pleasant discovery that if you are on a priority list, you can get through easily on the phone too!

It was reassuring to be told that there was no prospect of priority being removed. And I discovered I have the ‘good customer’ priority, not the shield one. Which was probably blatantly obvious to someone who works inside the system but not remotely so for the customer.

They have however noted on my account that I am also shielded, in case that’s ever relevant, but that’s not bern verified on the list from the hub as I never requested food support. So I must remember to keep my letters where I can find them in case if need to prove in the future.

TL:DR - try to speak to someone, there’s no general rule

They have however noted on my account that I am also shielded, in case that’s ever relevant, but that’s not bern verified on the list from the hub as I never requested food support. So I must remember to keep my letters where I can find them in case if need to prove in the future.

I phoned this morning and was told the same - I didn't get put on the priority list because I didn't request the food parcels, yet my local council told me it made no difference. Who knows.

RE supermarkets...to get on the priority shielded list (England) you have to answer ‘no’ to the ‘do you have a way of getting essential supplies delivered at the moment’ on the www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable site. You will then get weekly food boxes delivered. After that the supermarket get your email that you used in the gov site. If you have an online supermarket account with that email address you’ll get on their priority delivery list and supermarket will email you to say so. Once you are on the shops that you want you go through the gov.uk site again and answer ‘yes’ to the question. Then the gov food boxes will stop but you stay on the supermarket list.

A kind Sainsbury help desk man told me all this. It’s not clear from the gov communication!!

Oh also, I did this ok when it is my DD shielding rather than me.

I was refused by Sainsbury’s because I had not previously shopped online with them. Frustrating as it is my main supermarket that I use - my huge nectar points balance is proof of how often I shopped in store with them. Sadly they would not give me a slot. The same with Ocado - I had not used them before.

Only one supermarket would give us priority delivery slots - which is the one I always had deliveries with - so no change for us, except I had to pay for deliveries instead of using our normal pass, so ended up more costly. A win for supermarkets then!

I stayed with Morrisons where I'd always shopped online. In restrospect we made the mistake of signing on to the government database with DHs name (as he's the shielder), and said no to the food parcels. But Morrisons asked everyone to put in their delivery instructions where they were self-isolating, and when I changed my delivery instructions from "self isolating" to "household is shielding", it seemed easier to get slots. I wondered whetehr they were running a text search on the delivery field. But that may just be coincidence. Since then, I've just about managed a weekly slot, although I've had to book each slot 10 - 14 days in advance.

I know now that my mistake was in refusing the food boxes. No.one explained that blocked you from shopping delivery slots.

@Hearhoovesthinkzebras it was only the one question on the government site asking if you needed help with food. At least the form I filled out there was not seperate questions for food boxes and supermarket slots

You can still register in the gov.uk site again and answer ‘no’ this time to the question. Not too late - I did it this month (and had previously said ‘yes’ to the question). Obviously you have to enter the nhs no for the shielding person in your house, but when it asks for the email, put the one that is registered with the supermarket. The gov should have set it up with 2 questions (box / supermarket) . At least you can stop the boxes after you are registered.

[quote ToothFairyNemesis]@Hearhoovesthinkzebras it was only the one question on the government site asking if you needed help with food. At least the form I filled out there was not seperate questions for food boxes and supermarket slots[/quote]
I know, I filled it out twice but I said no because I didn't need the free food boxes. I wrongly as it turns out, assumed that everyone shielding would be added to the supermarket lists. I didn't realise that it was only the people who received the food boxes. Even when my local council phoned me and I mentioned not being able to get slots they registered me on the government site again specifically to enable me to get slots and it made no difference.

I phoned Tesco yesterday after seeing it here and I've now been added. I wish it had been made clearer though or that everyone shielding was just automatically put on the list.

We said "no" when we realised but never got offered a good box (we didn't want one). Tesco put us on priority list when we called as the accounts are in my name not shielding DH's. Gave up on Ocado once that happened and have had a delivery from Tesco every week.

I said no to the food help. I called Tesco and they added me to their list over the phone. Iceland in my area seems to be good for next day slots too, but limited on fresh food.

Snappy shopper has been excellent, admittedly for sweets for the teens, the odd bottle of alcohol, forgotten basics etc. They usually deliver within 2 hours, often much quicker, so it’s worth checking if there’s a shop in your area registered.