When does winter start? Or when do we feel winter has started? Is it something to do with the first noticeable frost? Or the appearance of holly in shop windows?
For many people in the county the answer is simply ‘When I begin to get cold in my own home.’ Every winter around 200 Wiltshire people die of cold and hundreds more struggle to pay their heating bills.
This month, the Wiltshire Community Foundation launches its annual appeal to highlight this very real problem in the county and is calling for those who can afford to live comfortably this winter to donate to help those who can’t.
Ruth G lives in Calne and is 85. She is disabled and lives alone. She is very immobile and has no family nearby, so she relies on carers who visit her three times a day. Her husband was also disabled, so while he was alive they received the relevant benefits.
Now she lives on her pension of just over £200 per week and her Disabled Living Allowance (DLA) of £400 per month. Her electric bills are around £1,000 per year: “It’s been much harder since my husband died because his benefits and pension stopped overnight and my income went right down.”
“I like to pay my electric bills quarterly and I try to put the right amount by each week. The pension and DLA don’t go up like the bills and sometimes I only have 20p left at the end of the week. I cut down on food to save money by buying ready meals and I eat half a portion so they last two days.”
“The council have put new radiators in, but I can’t afford to have them all on – so I just live in two rooms. The grant from the Community Foundation is a wonderful help for people like me. Like lots of older people, I am afraid of winter because if I get ill it takes much longer to recover.”
The Foundation works with partner organisations, who identify those who really need help. Last year they raised over £70,000 and helped over 350 households: “Thank you very, very much for the surviving winter grant. If I am cold I cannot function, it is such a relief to know I have enough money to put on my key card, with prices going up every year it’s a real worry, this is a godsend.” (Mrs F, Devizes.)
The Foundation’s aim is to support voluntary groups and charities across Wiltshire and Swindon. They work with partners such as Citizens Advice, Age UK, Wiltshire Good Neighbours and local Credit Unions.
So when does winter start? When people no longer remark on the autumn’s colours, and others start to feel cold in their own homes – and probably do not remark on it to anybody. And then it may be too late…
You can donate to the Wiltshire Community Foundation’s surviving Winter fund at their website.
