Shropshire’s winter death toll revealed
Tuesday 22nd November 2011, 11:00AM GMT.
One hundred people died in Shropshire last winter because they could not afford to heat their homes, it was revealed today.
And experts say a similar number of residents will die this year unless urgent action is taken to improve living conditions for the county’s elderly. The figures were revealed by the Community Foundation for Shropshire and Telford.
They came as national figures showed there were an estimated 25,700 deaths in England and Wales caused by the cold last winter – 110 fewer than the winter before.
The Office for National Statistics report showed that while deaths for people aged over 75 fell, the figure for those younger increased.
Wales recorded a higher percentage of excess deaths in winter than England.
There were 20 per cent more deaths in winter compared with the non-winter period in Wales – higher than the England average of 16 per cent.
In Shropshire, the community foundation’s grants officer Lynne Carney said it was now launching a new campaign to try to cut the winter death toll this year and was appealing for better-off pensioners to donate their winter fuel allowance if they did not need it.
She said: “We believe more than 100 people died in Shropshire last year from causes directly attributable to cold and poor winter living conditions.
“The Surviving Winter Appeal is asking those who receive the Winter Fuel Payment but feel they don’t need it to donate it on to help others who are more vulnerable in their local community.
“The Surviving Winter Appeal aims to make a difference during a winter which is forecast to be harsh.”
Funds raised will be used to help individuals in critical need and support organisations providing services, such as lunch clubs for the elderly and develop projects that address Fuel Poverty.
Ms Carney added: “Fuel poverty is a real problem for vulnerable communities in our county.
“Parts of Shropshire are amongst the worst affected nationwide, and it’s a particularly severe issue for the elderly.
Many simply cannot afford to keep their homes heated during the winter months.
“Unfortunately this exacerbates other health and mobility issues.”
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Time to examine the profits of the power companies, and the dividends paid to their shareholders.
One death is too many.
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tragic
free insulation all round please
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I totally agree with what Colin.D. said to much
profitering?
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the government don’t care about the poor or the elderly freezing to death.
they don’t care about dispicable high gas & electricity prices.
they don’t care if you live on the streets & die of hunger.
they don’t care that theres no jobs & the youth are being forced into slave labour with no pay for doing it.
they don’t care,because they are too busy living a life of luxury off our backs & dictating to eastern countries.
They wan’t all your money to be able to drop bombs of peace on them & spread their so called democracy,much in the same way that hitler did.
their just doing it slowly so you don’t notice it as quick & label them fascist dictators.
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Very true Ken, however the majority put this lot in .
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Andrew, the majority didn’t put this lot in.
There was a 65% turn-out at the last election and the Conservatives got 36.1% of the vote.
So 23% put this lot in.
And even if you add in the Lib Dems share of the vote, it still isn’t the majority.
I wonder how many people, myself included, would have voted differently if we’d known how this Government was going to conduct itself….I voted Lib Dem (never again) but didn’t sign up for the rich to get even richer at the expense of the rest of us.
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Issue here is you cant keep blaming lab ,as clearly the big issues are global .
Tories would have implemented all this, and had planned to do so the people who voted for them must have had some idea?, well you would have thought the middle classes would have seen that “It includes YOU as well”, clearly their behavior after the axing of the tax credits to the mc on over 40k , future axing of child benefit on over 40 k, pension attacks uni fees etc etc etc work longer and so on the way many are behaving and conducting themselves you would have though surly they could not have been this clueless?.
Perhaps Ken Clerk was correct when he said the way the mc are behaving they really cant see whats coming, and if they do then they don’t assume it will apply to them.
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Spot on Ken. Low incomes,Poor quality of life,A lack of housing and high unemployment. All due to the suicidally high number of immigrants and the fat-cat politicians who welcome them with open arms.
Germany’s result was the Nazi Party.
We are going down the same road.
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The rich are getting richer and the poor are… dying. With more and more people out of work and not being able to pay their bills then this number will increase as it will not only affect the elderley. The situation that the UK is in reminds me of the 1800′s when there was a big devide between the classes. As we are supposed to be in a classless scociety (believe it or not) I cannot see a way out. Yes somthing needs to be done. Small comments from people like me in local newspapers go knowhere. things have to change….
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very well put ken
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More meaningless stats – what are the qualifications of the so-called “experts” employed by the Community Foundation for Shropshire and Telford? And who has irrefutable evidence that the quoted 100 people died because they could not afford to heat their homes?
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What are YOUR qualifications to call this report “meaningless”??
I would imagine that the doctors or coroners who decided on the cause of death will have the evidence you need.
Back to the Sun,,page 3, more your level.
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I think Drone has a point, we are bombarded by these stats – where are they from? Why aren’t the sources printed as well? Are they saying people actually died by freezing to death? Or by complications brought on by living in poor conditions? I’m no supporter of the government or power companies by the way, I’d just like to know more detail.
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Very well reasoned Colin. You disagree with me therefore I’m a Sun reader.
These stats ARE meaningless in that they have no context. KC didn’t seem to have too much trouble understanding that, perhaps he reads the Daily Star do you think?
I imagine you’re right in that the doctors and coroners have all the evidence – why then are they not quoted?
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I think there’s one thing we can all agree on……Nobody should be lightly called a Sun Reader without statistical evidence to back it up. Indeed, in these days of political correctness, shouldn’t the use of ‘Sun Reader’ be consigned to the history books.
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Actually I just look at the pictures…
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Hi Drone,
I did the research for the Community Foundation. Re: ‘qualifications’, I have a First Class degree from Oxford University, with a prize-winning First in a thesis from original research. I’ve spent the last two months researching the data and preparing a campaign to tackle this problem in Shropshire and Telford.
The irrefutable evidence can be found in the annual data released by the ONS.
This is a massive problem in Shropshire. As a county, we’re the second worst affected by fuel poverty in the whole of England.
Hope that answers your questions.
Best wishes,
Liam
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Fair enough Liam, but the fact remains that “they could not afford to heat their homes” is not a cause of death.
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Indeed Drone.
And Liam, how many of these pensioners were claiming their full allowances the under minimum income guarantee and other items allowed them?
How many of them were not heating their homes because they’d been frightened into not doing so by such scare stories as this?
It’s well known that there are many benefits that go unclaimed by people of this age group, which would allow them more income to cover heating etc.
The profiteering of the energy companies is indeed disgraceful, but the findings of this report are far too simplistic, and smack of research which had a pre-determined outcome.
From your research, can you please tell us exactly how many people had it on their death certificates that they died of the cold, and no other cause or illness?
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Hello everyone,
Thanks for your comments. The issue we have is that cold homes seriously exacerbate health and mobility problems in frail people. If someone is living and sleeping in a house not heated above 16 degreesC, their body’s capacity to resist common flu and other winter ailments is seriously diminished. Minor respiratory and circulation problems can become serious. The likelihood of a stroke increases dramatically. So I think your criticisms are slightly academic; a bit like stubbornly suggesting a broken bungee cord isn’t the actual CAUSE of a serious injury. Of course it’s hitting the ground, but the broken cord really doesn’t help. The fact remains that well over 100 premature and preventable deaths in Shropshire are attributable to cold homes, and heating the home would reduce the frequency of these unfortunate deaths. Arguing otherwise attacks the semantics of the Shropshire Star’s article and not the crux of the issue.
What I’ve found is that Excess Winter Mortality in comparably cold Northern European countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands, is around 10-12% . In the UK deaths in the winter months is around 16-18%. That margin shows there are big improvements we can help make to reduce excess winter deaths. This is what the Surviving Winter campaign is aiming to tackle.
If you dispute the figures in my research I’d be very happy to send you on the details of the ONS and APHO statistics and you can review my methodology. I’d also be happy to receive your response. Email is survivingwinter.shropshire@gmail.com
Best wishes,
Liam
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Hi Peter,
I’m sorry but I don’t particularly understand the point you are making. I’m sure you’ll appreciate that quantitative research doesnt involve studying individual death certificates; that data is already compiled and grouped by the ONS.
Secondly, one of the benefits of publicising this information is that vulnerable people are made aware that it’s very important to keep their homes adequately heated. I can’t envisage how it would lead them to the opposite conclusion.
Finally, I’d be willing to discuss the aspects of the governmental report which struck you as overly-simplistic or pre-determined. With all due respect, have judging it on the very short summary given above?
Best wishes,
Liam
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Drone and Peter,
Erm, I really think that Liam knows quite a bit about this. If I were you I’d quit while I was ahead…
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Just 1 person dying from not being able to afford heating is too many.
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Surprised no one has mentioned the cut to elderly peoples winter fuel allowance.
Taken from a “tory rag”
George Osborne is plotting a multi-billion-pound raid on vital payments that help the elderly pay crippling winter fuel bills.
The Chancellor wants to slash Cold Weather Payments and drastically change the Winter Fuel Allowance.
The plans, to be unveiled in his cuts package next week on a day dubbed “Wipe-out Wednesday”, were condemned by charities and MPs last night.
At the moment, people get £25 if the average temperature plunges to OºC or below in their area for seven consecutive days. The payments – for people who get pension credit or income support
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And the energy company’s make more and more profit, they should be returned to state ownership immediately, sold by thatcher for a quick buck for her,and her cronies to make more money. sold back to us something that was ours to start with only a conservative could have dreamt that one up. The same goes for all the utilities that were fleeced of
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Rarely are they actually freezing to death
my understanding is this figure is premature deaths of very frail people who almost certainly only had a few months left anyway
the deaths are generally caused by cardio vascular and respiratory ailments which are exacerbated by cold but generally caused by old age and existing conditions
so its not actually like they are freezing to death – its the complications cold causes and the fact it makes your heart have to work harder to pump more viscous blood around the boody
anyeway isnt this good for the economy / population and pensions crisis ?
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An abbreviated version of the above comment can be found in the last sentence of the article.
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Ultimately what is needed though is for all people over 70 to be GUARENTEED a home of a certain SAP rating, if they cannot be met by insulating their home eg. because its too old etc they should be rehoused into a modern smaller warmer home
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It would help if we weren’t forced to subsidise wind turbines through our electricity bills.
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the irony of this is that its about high energy prices, whats driving that? Actually a big part is the green taxes and subsidies for renewables and fuel poverty! so really what we need is cheaper energy and less regulation would deliver this thus helping more people out of fuel poverty
things like poor housing, insulation, solar panels and all that is good for a tiny percentage but the real big ticket item, the main cause of fuel poverty is high prices, simply cut the taxes, e.g remove vat on fuel = 5% reduction on your bill, remove the ROC’s and FIT’s another 5% reduction on your bill, but this would allow oaps to afford to heat their homes
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Just thinking about this and what do the pensioners spend their winter fuel allowance on? We live in a 2 bed roomed house and as soon as it gets chilly we have our central heating on, we pay approx £40 a month on gas so the fuel allowance (starts at £200 I think?) is enough for 5 months worth of gas, how exactly are they freezing?
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Hi John,
We find that pensioners struggling to heat their homes already have fuel bills significantly higher than £40 a month. Many are immobile, so require heating on for longer and at a higher temperature just to keep their core body heat up. Another significant problem in Shropshire is that rural homes are not connected to gas, and have to pay for deliveries of extremely expensive heating oil.
We’ve found pensioners on the cheapest possible electricity tariffs with winter fuel bills for over £600.
Best wishes,
Liam
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Well Liam, I think your educated mind has come out on top here. Speaking for a lot of our pensioner friends,the direct debit payments that they make over the year covers the fuel bills, so the winter fuel allowance is a bonus to be used for Christmas presents.
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Thanks for the reply Liam, I honestly never thought about any of that.
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John. Evidence suggests that pensioners are dying of cold because they can’t afford to keep warm and you are scrabbling around to find out why it is, in fact, their own stupid fault…….priceless
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Sad, this is tragic, please if you know some one elderly check on them over Christmas, even if you just say hello it will help. If you really want to help make them a hot cup of tea and buy them a warm jumper for a christmas present would be a good idea too if you can spare it
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very sad
please can someone do something about it, the council should be giving these people free solar panels instead it spends it on the dole scroungers in council flats when it could be helping the elderly who are truly deserving of free solar panles
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In the big scheme of things the vast majority of old people have families, it is a shame many of these are to idle or cant be bothered to call in on the very people who brought them up or were part of their lives as they grew up . UK is way down on the list when it comes to looking after your own family and not looking to the state or others to do it for you.
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most of the pensioners round here are rertired on final salary pensions have about half a million in assets in their home and spend their winter fuel grant on holidays abroad
the people who need help now are the young who are a cheated generation
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