Warm spaces are opening across the country. These provide communities somewhere to get a free hot drink and stay warm as energy bills rise.
Winter Wellbeing
Our winter wellbeing pages offer lots of useful information, support and practical help, along with a list of helpful contacts.
Themes this year include:
- Cost of living support
- Keeping warm and eating well
- Vaccinations and health
- Loneliness and isolation
- Where to get help from key support services and organisations
Dudley Energy Advice
With rising fuel bills, we need to be careful in how we are keeping warm at home.
Pension Credit: Are you missing out?
Pension Credit gives you extra money to help with your living costs if you’re over State Pension age and on a low income. Pension Credit can also help with housing costs such as heating costs and service charges.
Stay Fire Safe
The West Midlands Fire Service have put together a page full of top tips. These can help you stay fire safe while you're trying to reduce the cost of heating or lighting your home.
Hot water bottle warning
Due to cost of living, the increased use of hot water bottles has meant an increase in serious burns.
Parents have been warned against giving hot water bottles to children after a rise in the number being treated for serious burns.
Burns and scalds to adults and the elderly from hot water bottles have also rose by about a fifth.
As the colder months of the year approach, coupled with the ongoing cost of living, families are urged to avoid using hot water bottles for children.
If you do use them at all in the home, you should remember two key pieces of information about how to use them safely:
- Never fill them with boiling water
- Always check the rubber flower symbol found on the neck which shows which month and year the hot water bottle was made.
Any bottle older than two years old should be replaced.
