No heating

[Thoms98]

I had a meltdown this morning. Our heating was off. Normally I respond to problems

calmly.My husband flipped, I am his carer, and he is unable to do anything for himself.

The carer was concerned about lack of hot water etc and I hadn't had time to address the situation. Pills had not been taken and everything in turmoil.I rang a plumber and left a message. Rang our supplier, British Gas and on hold for 20 mins. By now I am

crying and not able to think. Rang my son and by lunchtime,

we were sorted. I feel so sad for those people on their own with no support system. Is their a number that folks could call in an emergency?

[sassy59]

Glad things got sorted out and your back up and running again.

We also have full cover with British Gas and it’s paid for itself already due to the minor flood from a radiator. Wouldn’t be without it. Xxxx

[Hidden]

You can contact the energy companies and tell them that a vulnerable person lives in your property. In case of power cuts etc they will makes sure everything is OK for you. As others have said, it is worth having some sort of contract for your boiler - we have cover for our gas and electricity problems with our house insurance.

[MAS_Nurse]

Hi Thoms98, I can quite understand you having a 'meltdown' with such a stressful situation. Interestingly I was only made of aware of this the other day, but if you look at Ofgem website, there is something called a Priority Services Register for people in need. I will put some links below, and there are links in website to other service provider who offer similar e.g. water, phone, public transport services.

Priority Services Registers: ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/hous...

Extra help from energy services: ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/hous...

Power cuts help: ofgem.gov.uk/consumers/hous...

Hope this helps.

So glad that you situation has been sorted out.

Best wishes.

[katieoxo60]

Hello there, there is a vulnerable persons list with most utility companies who offer assistance to those of us who live alone, use medical equipment, are over 65, are disabled ect. They generally ring if a MAJOR power cut occurs and advise on what to do. I have emergency assist myself, which will try to get an engineer out within two hours if something breaks down, but I pay an annual fee for that. There is no perfect solution for such situations and I understand how you feel I get upset when things go amiss and it does bring you to tears we are not all level headed especially when it comes to faults they always seem to happen when other problems are occuring don't you think? The other day my TV went haywire but fortunately I know it is the aireal wire so I had to fix that which is not easy when you have arthritic hands, I don't even know why it comes loose it is a new fitting. Don't ask how we mamnage but we do. Hope all is back to normal for you, you have enough to do as a carer without other problems but we do have to cope don't we . Take care

[Hidden]

I can understand why, on a bad day, you can completely flip and feel that something is the last straw. No wonder, and I'm glad for you that you managed, with help, to get your problem resolved.

But the notion that there could ever be 'a single number' we can call which will then assist us to resolve our critical problems, is sadly never going to be possible. Yes, there is a register of vulnerable customers but I'd venture to suggest that it is inadequate in anything like the recent inclement weather. What we really need is to stop thinking it's someone else's problem and to re-foster the simple act of caring for each other, so that a neighbour's interventions are no longer seen as 'nosiness' or 'interference', and then to also make sure that the elderly and vulnerable understand what emergency measures they can take to stay warm with a period of no heating/hot water. It's all well and good having the telephone numbers of agencies which usually help you, but often they are in chaos too in things like bad weather. Happily, you managed to get your problem resolved, but in a worst case scenario it could take days, simply through something like being completely cut off through weather.

We really should be much more responsible towards family, especially elderly family, but also friends, neighbours and even strangers. I've just read another story of a depressed man who hanged himself because of his lack of human contact, and his body left rotting for weeks, with no-one noticing he was missing in his apartment block until the dreadful smell drove his neighbours to complain. Yet again, that's a shocking, horrible thing and if we are real, compassionate human beings, that should never happen.

Please, everyone, check on your neighbours, old or young, when there is a crisis due to anything like our recent weather. If you get rebuffed, fine, at least you tried.

Best wishes.