Prescribing Warmth This Winter
With the clocks having changed and the weather cold and wet, many of us will already have decided to put our heating back on.
Keeping our homes warm and feeling cosy and comfortable also helps keep us healthy as the temperatures outside drop.
If you have asthma or another chronic condition affecting your lungs, a colder home can worsen breathing problems, especially if there are issues like dampness or mold.
For some people, the decision of when to turn the heating on isn’t driven just by comfort or even health.
Help is at hand, with a Newcastle City Council scheme designed to help our most vulnerable residents keep their homes warm, and themselves healthy.
Prescribing Warmth
The Warm Home Prescription Scheme will run from 1st December until 1st March next year.
The aim is to provide people with a grant for their heating costs, making it easier to keep their homes at a healthy temperature.
To be eligible for a Warm Home Prescription, you must:
- Be a resident of Newcastle upon Tyne
- And have been diagnosed with a chronic lung disease like asthma, Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), bronchiectasis or Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD)
- And either be under 50 and receive free prescriptions or be over 60 and struggle to pay your bills.
If you are eligible, you can ask to be referred to the Council’s Energy Services Team. We can ask one of our Social Prescribing Link Workers to refer you.
Other Support
If you are not eligible for a Warm Home Prescription, other support is available.
- Priority Services Register; a free support service that makes sure extra help is available to people in vulnerable situations.
- More ideas from Ofgem on grants, schemes, benefits and charity support
- Help to Heat – government grants to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat
- Citizen’s Advice – grant and benefits help you pay your energy bills