Re: Winter Fuel Payment 2011
I'm not crowing here, not by any means, but when Gordon died three years ago in 2008 I didn't turn my central heating on for that terrible cold winter because I didn't know if I could afford it or not. I was 58 then so wasn't entitled to the cold weather payment.
I was still working full time, thank goodness, but I still had a car to pay off and a mortgage, both of which are now paid in full. I managed with a small electric one-bar fire and blankets wrapped around me, but I was still cold.
In the winter of 2009 I said sod it, I'm not going to be cold any longer, so I changed my fuel supplier as I'd been paying £186 a month for gas and electric, and I live alone. The central heating was switched on when I got home from work and not before.
Having said all of that, some elderly people can't move around as nimbly and have to just sit and just sitting can make you hypothermic and that's why so many old folk die from the cold.
It's wrong. For goodness sake! This is the 21st century and nobody should be dying of the cold.
Sorry, I've rabbited on again, but I do get very annoyed when the government think that the elderly don't matter anymore.