NEW FOREST TODAY NEWS

Free home help for the over 70s

Help is at hand for your home

Do you know anyone who would like help to make their home safe, warm and secure? The Safe, Warm and Secure scheme in the New Forest can provide support to help home owners to improve, adapt and maintain their property.

Due to its ongoing success, the Safe, Warm and Secure pilot project, a partnership of Hampshire County Council, the Shaw Trust and Age Concern Hampshire, is being extended until Christmas 2011.

The scheme offers free guidance and support to home owners over 70 years of age to improve, adapt or maintain their property to keep them safe, warm and secure. The scheme operates in Eastleigh, the New Forest and Test Valley areas. Since the project started in October 2010, it has helped 50 home-owners.

While it is the midst of summer, people may not want to think about getting their home ready for the winter. However, now’s a good time to make sure that everything is working so that any problems can be resolved in good time. Home-owners are advised to get their boiler serviced now to ensure they are able to heat their home when they need it the most. Safe, Warm and Secure can arrange for boilers to be serviced and can give support to apply for grants for central heating installation.

Mrs ‘J’, aged 78, had her boiler serviced in June. On her behalf, the scheme contacted traders listed in Hampshire County Council’s Trading Standards Service Directory and arranged for this work to take place. Mrs J commented that: “you don’t know what problems you can come across. I feel happy and reassured that my boiler is now ready for the winter”. With regard to the support that she received from the Safe, Warm and Secure team, Mrs J explained that: “If I hadn’t met the advisor, I would never have known about all the help that is available to me and other home-owners. The advisors have this knowledge and are bringing this to us”.

The scheme can provide practical and emotional support to older home-owners until completion of the work and aims to enable older people to continue to live independently at home with a positive quality of life.

While the scheme is unable to provide funding for any of the improvements, it can help with identifying available grants and benefits. It can also help to source reputable contractors, arrange for quotations, and be there when the contractors visit.

To get in touch with the Safe, Warm and Secure team, phone 023 9273 3982 or email safe.warm.secure@shaw-trust.org.uk