EXPERTS from Age UK are bidding to stop hundreds of elderly people across the county lose their lives by partnering with the Wiltshire Community Foundation for its Surviving Winter campaign.

The charity has worked with the foundation for the 11 years the campaign has been running, but this year it is taking an even more active role. The community foundation has set a £90,000 target to fund essential help for the more than 400 elderly people who are at risk of dying from cold-related illness.

Age UK is one of four partners along with Warm and Safe Wiltshire and Citizens Advice in Wiltshire and Swindon. It will provide energy grants, boiler repairs and servicing and a free trial of its Swindon-based hot meals service.

Pippa Webster, Age UK’s project co-ordinator, said: “This campaign is so important because we can all recognise, as people are increasingly working from home and realise that putting on the heating is vital, that older people are even more at risk. They are generally less active and get cold more easily and in many cases they also have health problems, so have additional difficulties in keeping active and therefore warm.

“We are a very rural county, we have stone cottages, older properties with single glazing and park homes where people are just not in control of their heating so the grants for us are absolutely vital.”

The charity often identifies those at risk when its advisors talk to older people who ring about other issues. “We are out and about in the community, so we have a good idea of who these people in need are,” said Mrs Webster.

“But problems around fuel bills normally come out in the wider conversations we have with them – they contact us about a pressing matter which generally expands into other things. We do a full benefit check and look at their fuel bills and their circumstances.”

The grants to help pay fuel bills of up to £200 are the most immediate help the charity can give. ”The difference these grants can make is huge. The worry and anxiety of having a large fuel bill that can’t be paid or that some people would struggle to pay can’t be under-estimated,” said Mrs Webster.

“We are most concerned about those who are frightened to put their heating on because they are concerned about a large bill coming in. Not putting your heating on has such an impact on health so we do lot to educate older people, teaching them to use their heating controls, checking that they have insulation and making sure they are having hot meals and drinks throughout the day.”

The charity is working with Wiltshire Warm and Safe to refer people who need more energy advice and help. “They can give advice on heating controls and insulation, so by working together we can address the immediate fuel crisis and the financial need and look at the longer term solutions to help people that way,” said Mrs Webster.

The charity will also be offering a number of community hot meals, which are delivered from its base in Toothill, Swindon, and delivered all over the county, to older people being discharged from hospital over the next few months while they make alternative arrangements.

“As part of our Home from Hospital service we offer up to six weeks support – shopping, medication collection and so on but what would help get people back on their feet is a hot nutritious meal being delivered to them each day,” said Mrs Webster.

“The grant pays for a trial period for people to have meals for a week, which they can then continue to have as a paid-for service.”

She said when people are discharged, they are usually quite disorientated and find it extremely difficult to immediately revert to the routine they had before they went into hospital.

Wiltshire Community Foundation joint chief executive Fiona Oliver said: “We are so pleased to be working in partnership with Age UK Wiltshire again this year. Its range of amazing services for elderly people will undoubtedly help to save lives again this winter.

“A donation to the campaign will go a long way to making these colder months healthier and happier for elderly and vulnerable people living in fuel poverty. The Surviving Winter Campaign is an excellent mechanism for people to redirect their government Winter Fuel Payment if they don’t need or want it and would like to help someone in who would really benefit from it.”

To donate to the campaign, go to wiltshirecf.org.uk.