I joined a few of those mutual aid groups in my area (took about 4 to find ones covering the right streets…) and just had the first opportunity to help someone.
Adorable, near deaf, older man. Spoke to him on the phone and got his shopping list, highlights of the call include:
“Are you only able to get essentials as I have some other things too?” (then asks for Parmesan - in my house that is an essential!)
“Some granola, it’s not the tesco one, but it’s in a black packet. Not the sugar free one”.
“Grapes, but only the big ones. I don’t like the small ones but I don’t think Tesco have the big ones”.
Reminds me of doing the shopping for my gran when I was younger.
Did you ask for an emergency supplies drop? I didn’t when I filled in the form as I can always wing it & decided it’d be better fo people who really couldn’t get food any other way.
No letter still, although I got a text that they’d ‘notified the NHS’ I’d filled in the form. You’d think being a recipient of free flu jabs, regular hospital appointments (plus the prepayment card as I get so many prescriptions) and being in at least 2 categories of high risk you’d think this database would have picked up my details already, but apparently not.
Mind you I’m not really that in need, compared to the stories I’ve heard… I can say F the quarantine, jump in the car and go shopping. Lots of people can’t.
Our GP says that no-one’s spoken to them about who ought to be on any list (we were asking a specific question, not just a general one!) so it feels like no matter what issues a person may be suffering from, if they’re GP rather than hospital managed they may not be being contacted.
It’s all purely anecdotal evidence, of course, so I have no idea what’s gone on elsewhere in the country. Hopefully our surgery is the exception rather than the rule.
Me and my partner have been helping our parents/grandparents and we tend to get “Oh no, I don’t need any of those” and the next day an SOS of “I’ve run out of…” the thing we asked them about the day before
I get a similar variation. “Oh no, we don’t need that thing.” Then a day or two later “We ran out of thing, but it’s OK, we popped out to the supermarket and bought some.”
I hope it’s sooner rather than later that I can get it to stick that it’s not the size of the shop that’s the problem (popping in for one thing versus doing a big shop), it’s the act of entering the shop at all and coming into potential contact with all manner of members of the public
Pretty poor form of the Independent to be giving any credence to WhatsApp ‘fake news’ by discussing collapse rumours. And even poorer form of the customers they spoke to (if true) who “emptied their accounts”, because it’s exactly that sort of behaviour that can cause problems where there were none.
if they’re GP rather than hospital managed they may not be being contacted.
My condition is hospital managed so even if they haven’t managed to contact the GPs they haven’t even asked the hospital either? I do wonder what the source of this list actually is then… Not entirely unexpected when a policy gets announced on the hoof and civil servants have to scramble to implement it.
As long as the supermarkets don’t start trying to use it as authoritative source… it sounds like it’s more of a random sampling.
We got ours today for my son was dated 27th March so not bad, but we are in Scotland , and they have created their own “Social Security”, so that may be a reason also as I am his carer, it has given us a mobile number to contact for updates, and to arrange shopping if required.
Also told a week before lockdown my boy is to “socially Isolate” the new letter states it’s now 12 weeks from “today” / date of letter
I registered on the gov website that was in the text I got about been severely vulnerable, some of the questions they ask are a bit open to interpretation at times, it may be that one of my answered triggered the food parcel to be sent. I only really registered to get the priority access to food deliveries via the supermarkets.
Council rung me up today to check I’ve had my box an all, can’t fault them to be fair
Just seen on the news that the FCA have told the banks that they must offer the first £500 at 0% on overdrafts to help people out with their finances at this difficult time for some.
I understand that, but then you have a big chunk of the population being charged interest for a £500 overdraft that in all likelihood they can’t pay back straightaway, including people who weren’t eligible for an overdraft in the first place.
The FCA can’t just decree that banks give people free money without the ability to pick and chose who they believe will be in a position to pay it back.
