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Who Is To Blame For 25,000 Older People Dying Due To Cold Weather
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I was really upset to read in the Daily Express that 25,000 older people die a year because of issues related to the cold. Who is to blame is it energy companies, government or the failure of society to look after it's elderly
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My parents-in-law used to huddle round a small electric fire rather than turn the heating on. It was the way that they had been brought up. They could not be persuaded to spend money on keeping their house warm. They had ample money to live comfortably. Old people (like me now!) can be very stubborn.
Don't be too upset, Gordie.....my mother could quite easily have become one of those classed, incorrectly, as dying from the cold.
She would have died because she was too stubborn to spend some of her thousands on heating her house.
She didn't die because she had two children who took it in turns to travel miles daily to turn up the heating and sit till the house was warm....though she turned it off when we left.
And because her frustrated daughter eventually found a way of fiddling the hall thermostat so she couldn't turn it down.
It isn't always the fault of those you mention.
She would have died because she was too stubborn to spend some of her thousands on heating her house.
She didn't die because she had two children who took it in turns to travel miles daily to turn up the heating and sit till the house was warm....though she turned it off when we left.
And because her frustrated daughter eventually found a way of fiddling the hall thermostat so she couldn't turn it down.
It isn't always the fault of those you mention.
A couple of observations from my time working for the Department of Social Security (now DWP).
Visiting officers regularly came back from visiting the elderly frustrated at their stubbornness. Many many had cash in the house and in the bank while they sat huddled in blankets refusing to use it for heating, " Oh that's for my family to bury me with" being a universal reply.
Winter fuel payments are another case in point. Come September when they were paid we would often get calls to ask when it would be paid "....because we want to go Christmas shopping".
Staff always wanted to have the money paid to the fuel authorities-ensuring that at least it would go for its intended purpose but the legislation has never materialised.
Deaths 'DIRECTLY' attributable to lack of heating is a very difficult thing to prove.
Visiting officers regularly came back from visiting the elderly frustrated at their stubbornness. Many many had cash in the house and in the bank while they sat huddled in blankets refusing to use it for heating, " Oh that's for my family to bury me with" being a universal reply.
Winter fuel payments are another case in point. Come September when they were paid we would often get calls to ask when it would be paid "....because we want to go Christmas shopping".
Staff always wanted to have the money paid to the fuel authorities-ensuring that at least it would go for its intended purpose but the legislation has never materialised.
Deaths 'DIRECTLY' attributable to lack of heating is a very difficult thing to prove.
I'm pleased to hear that some elderly people are really well off. if an elderly person's income is only state pension, trust me, heating a home in a bad winter is not easy. I do believe the government advice in the past was for vulnerable people to wear hats/gloves/scarfs at home. recently the advice has been to ''heat only one room '' whoever is to blame............ it's shameful people are dying of hypothermia.
When people see these headlines, they assume that the excess deaths are due to underheated homes and fuel poverty. (Deaths from hypothermia are rare.)
It's a bit more complicated that that, as the deaths occur across the social spectrum, pensioners in social group I have excess deaths as well.
The highest death rates occur in care homes which are generally well heated.
The countries in Europe with the greatest rate of deaths in the cold weather are Portugal and Spain.
In the colder weather the blood "thickens" leading to an increase in stroke and heart attacks.
'Flu and pneumonia also play a part, as do falls.
As well as improving indoor heating, some think that more should be done to counteract outside cold stress. From the BMJ..
"Particular focus is now needed on exposure to the cold outdoors. Age Concern and other charities have responded by giving advice on avoidance of cold stress outdoors, but campaigns by government departments have remained fixated on indoor cold. Apart from personal measures such as warm clothing and exercise when outdoors in cold weather, there is scope for official action on physical measures such as windproof bus shelters, and in some cases heated waiting rooms."
It's a bit more complicated that that, as the deaths occur across the social spectrum, pensioners in social group I have excess deaths as well.
The highest death rates occur in care homes which are generally well heated.
The countries in Europe with the greatest rate of deaths in the cold weather are Portugal and Spain.
In the colder weather the blood "thickens" leading to an increase in stroke and heart attacks.
'Flu and pneumonia also play a part, as do falls.
As well as improving indoor heating, some think that more should be done to counteract outside cold stress. From the BMJ..
"Particular focus is now needed on exposure to the cold outdoors. Age Concern and other charities have responded by giving advice on avoidance of cold stress outdoors, but campaigns by government departments have remained fixated on indoor cold. Apart from personal measures such as warm clothing and exercise when outdoors in cold weather, there is scope for official action on physical measures such as windproof bus shelters, and in some cases heated waiting rooms."
Well, Gromit knows some very well-off people is all I can say.
OH is 81 and goes alarmingly white and cold in any cold spell, Winter is feared (even though we are wearing lots of jumpers, shawls and scarves). We try to keep the heating at about 16C - above that and the level of oil dips alarmingly, but we are stretching ourselves to keep it at that.
The older you get, the harder it is to keep warm and I don't think that has been adressed. I didn't understand it myself until a few years ago. Perhaps it needs a combination of energy companies and governments to understand this. I fear being alone and old and cold.
OH is 81 and goes alarmingly white and cold in any cold spell, Winter is feared (even though we are wearing lots of jumpers, shawls and scarves). We try to keep the heating at about 16C - above that and the level of oil dips alarmingly, but we are stretching ourselves to keep it at that.
The older you get, the harder it is to keep warm and I don't think that has been adressed. I didn't understand it myself until a few years ago. Perhaps it needs a combination of energy companies and governments to understand this. I fear being alone and old and cold.
sp We're ex-pats, in mid France. It is not warmer! We are regularly snowed-in (no road-clearing) and it was -19c the other year! Mid-continent is far colder than UK, believe me! The figure they came up with for France included the tropical, French dominions, which put the mean temperature just above that of Cornwall, so they could stop the fuel allowance. Italy, by contrast, kept their allowance and it is far warmer there in Winter. We have, of course, paid in what other born, bred and worked-there-all-their-lives current residents have paid.
Before someone says 'What about the nice Summers?' it's so hot that we have to burn electricity using fans - so no saving there.
Before someone says 'What about the nice Summers?' it's so hot that we have to burn electricity using fans - so no saving there.
"perhaps we need to reconsider whether we should be giving the winter fuel allowance to ex-pat elderly people living in warmer climes?"
Been debated many times in many places. I'm inclined to say no. If someone has moved somewhere warm to live in retirement it will be something they've paid for, not the taxpayer; and they ought not lose out because of it. Whilst strictly speaking they may not need a winter allowance when it is cold in the UK, the other side of the coin is that they may need an air conditioning allowance at other times of the year when the UK is simply warm. To remove the benefit from some pensioners because they are far away but not others is unfair. To try to monitor climate the world over and have both too cold and too hot triggers for benefits, is too costly. For pragmatic reasons it makes sense to retain what we have, even if it is easy to point out the apparent absurdity.
That said I disagree with triggered handouts anyway. State pension should be enough to cover basic living costs.
Been debated many times in many places. I'm inclined to say no. If someone has moved somewhere warm to live in retirement it will be something they've paid for, not the taxpayer; and they ought not lose out because of it. Whilst strictly speaking they may not need a winter allowance when it is cold in the UK, the other side of the coin is that they may need an air conditioning allowance at other times of the year when the UK is simply warm. To remove the benefit from some pensioners because they are far away but not others is unfair. To try to monitor climate the world over and have both too cold and too hot triggers for benefits, is too costly. For pragmatic reasons it makes sense to retain what we have, even if it is easy to point out the apparent absurdity.
That said I disagree with triggered handouts anyway. State pension should be enough to cover basic living costs.
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