Woman, 87, ‘wasn’t a priority’ for boiler fix
AN 87-year-old woman was told she would have to go without heating or hot water for at least four days because she ‘wasn’t a priority’ for emergency boiler repair, her daughter-in-law claims.
The pensioner - who has not long come out of hospital - lives in a house in Newton Heath which is managed by Northwards Housing.
She is partially sighted and is visited by carers three times a day.
On Friday morning, the elderly woman - who didn’t want to be named - woke up to find her boiler had broken.
Her daughter-in-law Caroline Brayshaw says both she and the carers contacted Northwards Housing to report it and arrange repair, but were both told the vulnerable pensioner did not fit the criteria for emergency repair.
The company claims it wasn’t made aware at first of the woman’s ill-health, and that her age and the fact she needed carers were not necessarily red flags.
“She was sitting there with her coat on,” Caroline, who lives in Wigan, said.
“She has just come out of hospital, she is partially sighted and is full of arthritis. We told the company this but were told she wasn’t a priority because she didn’t fit their criteria and would have to wait until Tuesday.
“I thought that elderly people would be classed as vulnerable - if age doesn’t matter then what does?
“It feels like they couldn’t care less. She is freezing cold, she’s just come out of hospital and has several aneurysms - she’s very poorly.”
Caroline says that her mother-inlaw ended up having to pay someone to come out and repair the boiler because she was worried about having to go without hot water and heating for several days.
Northwards Housing has since apologised for the ‘misunderstanding’ and says it will reimburse the cost of the boiler repair.
“She’s paid someone to fix it now, but the point is my mother-in-law won’t be the last elderly person whose boiler breaks this winter,” said Caroline.
“I’m worried what could happen to other vulnerable people, that’s why I decided to speak out to try and help stop that happening.”
Andy Plant, director of property services at Northwards Housing, said: “We would like to apologise to Mrs Brayshaw and her family for misunderstanding the information provided to our customer service team, which led to this repair not being treated as an emergency.
“As soon as we understood more about the tenant’s circumstances, we dealt with it as an emergency and an operative visited her home at 2.30pm on Friday.
“The boiler was working when our operative arrived as we understand the family had made alternative arrangements.
“Mrs Brayshaw has accepted our offer to reimburse the cost of this work.”