Gransnet on the wireless

I think it's very sad that Elsie had to resort to such things and I do wonder if where she lives contributes to her plight. London is not somewhere that caters for the poor or for social needs. I have heard of pensioners taking the bus into town and walking around shopping malls so they didn't have to heat their house. Personally I think I'd go for sitting in my local library, I always find it too warm when I am choosing my books and sitting reading would suit me.

Libman

Judging from the replies on here I would say Elsie doesn’t have much in common with many on Gransnet. Why should she have to volunteer to stay warm? Surely it’s a basic right to be warm and decently fed? She’s 77! Some 77 year olds are still very active and some are not…..Not using her time ‘usefully’ has got nothing to do with the current situation where the energy companies are reporting massive profits whilst the most disadvantaged are living hand to mouth due to the massive hike in fuel charges. Perhaps Elsie was managing perfectly well a few months ago.

Quite a few entitled responses here. I am saddened.

Me too, just because others can do things, does not mean everyone can.

I agree with you too Libman.
I doubt whether Elsie has been riding around on a bus for fun, or out of laziness or some sort of lack of mental capacity. This has been her solution to the problem of keeping warm and it seems quite a resourceful one.

JaneJudge

No rural lunch clubs
No rural buses
I think people need to stop basing their own experience on what is happening to other people
That poor bloody woman fgs

Doesn't she live in London?

Rural villages are often more friendly than big cities, though, and volunteers often do arrange activities for older people.
There are befriending groups and they could help people access help too.

There are few buses, I agree.

They will have found the most extreme case possible to emphasise the point. Re contacting Gransnet for comment - they'd be better contacting Age UK rather than a social media site. Not saying much for the media all round.

Elsie should be entitled to Pension Credit if her income is, as reported, £170 per week.

During the conversation, which covered the UK's support of Ukraine and the cost of living, Susanna revealed she had an email from 77-year-old Elsie who can only afford to eat one meal and day and spends her morning riding on buses for free to avoid using energy at home

I really doubt Elsie is a Gransnet user. The poor lady spends all her time on the bus - I doubt she even has a computer, let alone a laptop or iPad

Elsie must have some access to a computer because she emailed Susannah Reid about her plight.

or maybe gransnet contacted them
sitting on the bus for warmth is nothing new

I worked in a large library years ago and it was used daily by elderly people just wanting to keep warm. They would arrive as the doors opened and leave just before we closed.
Sadly many libraries have closed now so that option isn't as available as it once was.
Many of the people had some disabilities or mental health problems which would have made volunteering impossible.

I feel sad that people have to resort to sitting on buses or finding other free warmth.

JaneJudge

or maybe gransnet contacted them
sitting on the bus for warmth is nothing new

No, I have heard of this before now.

Aveline

They will have found the most extreme case possible to emphasise the point. Re contacting Gransnet for comment - they'd be better contacting Age UK rather than a social media site. Not saying much for the media all round.

I doubt Elsie is the most extreme case possible unfortunately Aveline. At least she’s physically fit enough to find a solution, and get herself to the bus stop each morning. There will be less mobile and disabled people who don’t have the ability to do that, who are spending their time in their cold home wrapped in blankets or in bed.

Not heard radio called a wireless for years!
Last time I was on a bus all the windows were open and heating was not on. Don't know if that's changed in Scotland.

BlueBelle

I would think Elsie has mental health problems did it say how old she was because she could certainly be in the warm volunteering and in may cases get free coffee and biscuits
If she’s able to sit on a bus all day surely she could do something more useful with her time there are also elderly day centres drop ins warm dinners Salvation Army etc
So no I don’t think it’s normal for people on or off GN

I have this feeling that you have no idea what it's like not to be able to make ends meet. Why would that mean she had mental health issues? She has found a solution she can cope with. Homeless people in London have often ridden the underground. With a bus pass it seems like a reasonable idea.

62Granny Wed 04-May-22 15:01:45
?

Susanna Reid has explained that she first came across Elsie when researching a feature GMB were planning with Money Supermarket’s Martin Lewis. When Johnson finally agreed to give GMB an interview, Reid decided that her approach was going to be about the people who need help now and are not getting it. Remember she talked too about the family with two disabled children who rely on a range of electrical aids whose electricity bill is now £400 a month.

Elsie’s choice of what she does with her time is not the point. We know little else about her other than she lives in a council house in inner London banded F. Some people elsethread seem incredulous that a council house can be in band F and assume it must be huge. Why is Elsie living in such a big house? Why dosn’t she move? I have explained elsethread how it is perfectly possible for a small council house to have ended up in band F based on 1991 market values in London. As such she will not receive the £150 energy payment.

The point is that fuel bills have quadrapled and people on limited incomes are having to make the choice between warmth or hunger. People should not be reduced to seeking warmth on buses and in public buildings or having to buy the leftover food in shops at the end of the day. They have a right to be warm in their homes and to have enough to eat.

Please don’t assume that everyone has the same personality or social options. We know little about Elsie or how long she has lived alone or how Reid became aware of her. For all we know she may be a recent widow and struggling with bereavement. I gather she has been overwhelmed by the publicity this has caused and has asked for privacy. In a way, Reid has weaponised Elsie to make a point about a government which is failing its most vulnerable people. She should not have needed to if we had a decent government doing its job.

There’s a tone from some on this thread that makes me very uncomfortable. Elsie is simply an example of the gulf that exists in the UK between rich and poor. Government has a duty to help and protect the most vulnerable in our society and to alleviate their suffering NOW. The UK is the fifth richest nation in the world behind the USA, China, Japan and Germany and could easily help people. The rise in energy prices has little to so with supply and demand as we are being lead to believe. Once again it is traders playing the market for personal and corporate gain. Yes, there are concerns about Russian supply but the prices of oil and gas and other fuel commodities are largely set by energy traders. Their actions, buying and selling massive energy bets based on minor or even nonexistent changes to real-world supplies are stoking rising prices and volatility. As always, some people get very rich and everyone else pays the price.

nadateturbe

What I don't understand is why, when costs rise, benefits don't rise by the same percentage. .

Because the government decided to stop the triple lock and similarly treat benefits. It's a choice; Johnson and the crew felt the poorest should make an exaggerated contribution to their problems.

On the other hand, the Treasury said it expected to write off £4.3bn of the £5.8bn of public money fraudulently claimed by businesses during the pandemic.

And ... the UK's spending watchdog looking into the £13.1bn procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) found the fast-track access to contracts, for those with good connections to government, meant billions were spent without safeguards; much of the PPE supply being unusable. The clawback of fraud is a tiny fraction of what the UK government fears.

The rise in pensions and benefits is a drop in the ocean compared to the losses from fraud and incompetence the government are writing off.

Callistemon21 Wed 04-May-22 17:50:34

I heard the piece which the GN representative did and my memory of it is that she was quoting the piece you have highlighted, not saying this was a GN poster.

OakDryad Wed 04-May-22 21:33:47
An excellent post once again OD

There’s a tone from some on this thread that makes me very uncomfortable. Elsie is simply an example of the gulf that exists in the UK between rich and poor.

I'm afraid it's not unusual on GN. We know Johnson once wrote that the poor were “chavs, losers, burglars and drug addicts”. This is a message we also see in the right-wing press. GN posters do like to tell those living in poverty how they should manage.

The truth is very different. The poor do not become poor because they make bad decisions. This view is just an attempt to justify gross inequality. It is not character or behaviour that determines where we end up but circumstance. We will often use circumstance to excuse our outcomes but use character to blame others.

Being poor is the most expensive way to live. You cannot depend on a cushion of money or help to get you out of difficulties. You cannot let yourself buy more to save; you don't know if you will have enough for tomorrow. You have a high chance of getting into expensive debt.

You will be time-poor because everything is done the long way round to save money.

You will not be able to eat well which will affect your decision making. You may not have anything which you can cook on, so food is more expensive for the nutritional value it gives you.

You will live in a state of constant anxiety. You almost certainly will take the maximum time if you have to travel anywhere. Every day is an uphill grind which you continue to try and live with.

We must stop the ever-growing income inequality.

DaisyAnne

Callistemon21 Wed 04-May-22 17:50:34

I heard the piece which the GN representative did and my memory of it is that she was quoting the piece you have highlighted, not saying this was a GN poster.

I didn't say she was a Gransnet poster

It was another poster who said that and I was quoting her.

crazyH Wed 04-May-22 14:46:24
I really doubt Elsie is a Gransnet user .

No, no Callistemon21 I didn't say or think that you did.

George Eustace has had a bright idea to help people who are struggling financially:

Buy own-brand products, that way they can actually contain and manage their household budget

inews.co.uk/news/cost-living-crisis-fact-checking-george-eustice-claim-own-brand-products-1610686

DaisyAnne

No, no Callistemon21 I didn't say or think that you did.

OK, I was just puzzled.

Callistemon, I think my statement got lost in translation.

I really doubt Elsie is a Gransnet user meaning ‘I don’t think Elsie is a Gransnet user ‘

I was just confirming that, to my memory she wasn't a GN member.

Sometimes the negativity really makes me wonder about posting on this forum

a GN member described as a GN member by the Gransnet representative.

I can't remember who the woman was who was interviewed on the ITV 6.30 pm news talking about this as I was concentrating on something else at the time.
Jon Ashworth was interviewed too.