A Rochdale woman and her disabled husband, who is desperately in need of a kidney transplant, have been refused a free boiler under a council scheme… despite having no hot water.
Joy Miller, 56, of Heywood, and her husband Keith, were told they did not qualify for the Get Me Toasty scheme as they are not claiming income-related benefits.
Currently the couple, who married in 1976, have a 40-year-old boiler and Joy said the threat of it breaking down made every winter a constant worry.
“We don’t have savings to pay for a new one as my husband has been ill for a long time,” she said.
“We have to limit the time our heating is on as the boiler is not cost effective, then if you add on recent rises it’s worrying us for this winter.
“Last winter we used a gas fire but our bills were sky high.
“Our main worry is if our boiler eventually breaks down it is so old that we have been told that it will not be repairable as parts are no longer available.”
Keith, 58, has been ill for 21 years since being diagnosed with hemiplegia – a condition which causes severe stroke-like migraines several times a week after he first suffered an attack whilst working at a bus company in 1992.
Four years ago, Keith was told he had renal failure which has left him needing dialysis three times a week and facing an anxious wait on the kidney transplant list.
“My husband needs to be warm as he is also anaemic and therefore feels the cold easily and he cannot move around well,” Joy said.
“As he sits around for long periods and spends a lot of time in bed he needs to be warm.”
The couple, who have ran their own family chip shop in Darnhill during the 1980s, use an emersion heater or boil a kettle to keep warm and a wet room with an electric shower has been fitted in for Keith with an electric shower by Adult Social Services.
Joy, who works two mornings a week as a playgroup assistant, said it was unfair her husband, who claims Disability Living Allowance (DLA) and Employment Support Allowance (ESA) did not qualify for a free boiler under a scheme designed to cut costs for Greater Manchester residents at a time when the average dual fuel bill has risen to £1,318 for hard-pressed families.
“There obviously has to be some way of monitoring who is entitled to get their boilers replaced we realise that, but what we can’t understand is the difference between income related benefits and earnings related benefits.
Joy added: “My husband has at least paid into the system we now need help off.
“I think the Get Me Toasty scheme is good in principle.
“We have had free cavity wall insulation done under a similar scheme a couple of years back, but if they are not going to include all people in extreme hardship – especially those with disabilities, then I think a large section of the population are being ignored.”
Get Me Toasty encourages Greater Manchester residents to apply for free replacement boilers and cavity wall and insulation to keep their houses warm and reduce the amount of energy they use each winter.
Helen Freeborough, of the Environmental Strategy Team at Manchester City Council, said: “If a customer is not in a ‘qualifying postcode area’ and not in receipt of any ‘qualifying benefits’, then they would have to apply through the Green Deal.”
Customers can find out if they qualify for the scheme by visiting the postcode checker here.
Image courtesy of Warhead, with thanks.
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