Excess Winter Deaths
A big cause for concern during the winter months is the number of vulnerable people aged over 75 who use heating oil.
According to the ONS for England and Wales, the winter of 2018 to 2019 saw an estimated 23,200 ‘excess winter deaths’. The very sad thing about this fact is that many of these deaths were avoidable.
Obviously, the cold was a significant contributing factor in over 80% of these avoidable deaths.
Cold Weather Priority Initiative (CWP)
Originally, in 2017 the Cold Weather Priority initiative (CWP) was set up by the Federation of Petroleum Suppliers now known as the “UK and Ireland Fuel Distributors Association” or UIKIFDA.
Under its new name, the CWP initiative was relaunched in 2019.
The initiative’s main objective is designed to reduce severe illness and deaths caused by a lack of sufficient heating.
Another equally important objective is to identify the UK’s vulnerable elderly. It applies especially to those who are over 75 and live in rural communities and use heating oil.
Why Is The Cold Weather Priority Needed?
UKIFDA heating oil supplier members use a variety of ways to identify qualifying households. As a consequence, each UKIFDA’s heating oil member will know exactly those elderly customers who are at risk.
This allows the heating oil suppliers to take pro-active steps and prioritise fuel deliveries. This is very important especially during times of fuel shortages or extreme cold weather.
This potentially life saving scheme costs nothing to join. To be eligible you simply need to have one or more residents at your/their address aged 75 or over.
If you’d like to be included, meet the criteria just get in touch with your local heating oil supplier.
How Does the Cold Weather Priority Scheme Work?
The scheme is simple in its design. It is effective at looking after elderly heating oil customers. Hence, if your household has one or more residents aged 75 or over, you are eligible to take part in the scheme.
The scheme provides an extra layer of support for the vunerable elderly. It enables UKIFDA fuel supplier members to prioritise those on the scheme during the winter months.
As we have said before members will be employing various methods to identify customers who they believe fall into the ‘CWP’ category.
Suppliers will speak or write to their customers about the scheme. Some members will also undertake a data exchange with Experian to identify CWP customers.
All members will actively encourage vulnerable customers to join up if they or someone in their home is aged 75 or over.
What can I do?
Heatingoilshop.com and heating-oils.com highly support and recommend this commendable initiative.
If you know a neighbour, have a relative or friend who is over 75 years then talk to them about the scheme.
If they agree we recommend you put forward their name to a local heating oil supplier. They can rest assured that they would qualify for priority deliveries during the winter months.
At present, we live in unparalleled times with the threat of Covid-19. So, with a little effort and acts of kindness, you can help save “at risk” heating oil users lives.
Please take a little time out and help them. Thank you for reading
More details are here or on your local distributors website : https://ukifda.org/cold-weather-priority-initiative/
For current price trends, head on over to heatingoilshop.com and get multiple heating oil quotes from suppliers to your area.
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Check out our post on heating oil tanks and the new legislation regarding heating oil boilers. Every heating oil user must be aware of the these changes in legislation and costs associated with heating oil spills and leakages.
