Sign & Symptoms

Many of the symptoms described below indicate that people are unwilling or unable to spend money on heating and, as a consequence, their health may suffer.

Identifying a cold home

Those people living in cold homes may:

• have regular chesty coughs and colds
• tend to live in only one room to keep heating costs down
• wear excessive clothing indoors
• look blue and cold
• have hands that feel cold
• spend excessive time out, for example in the library or on buses, finding other places to keep warm
• be reluctant to leave hospital
• be admitted to hospital frequently
• sit with hot water bottles or use other unusual ways of keeping warm, such as gas cookers
• complain of feeling cold
• spend an excessive amount of time in bed
• keep the curtains closed all day in an attempt to keep the heat in

The house itself may:

• have no visible means of heating
• be very draughty
• have windows that are wet with condensation
• have ice on the inside of the windows
• smell of damp
• have isolated heaters around the house
• have payment meters
• have mould on the walls

Identifying an insecure home

Those people living in insecure homes may:

• have been the victim of burglary or distraction burglary before
• complain that they do not feel safe at home
• appear inappropriately trusting of strangers

The house itself may:

• be situated in a high crime area
• be screened in some way from public view (eg by a hedge or fence)
• have external doors that are flimsy or do not close properly
• have inadequate locks on doors
• have ground floor windows that cannot be locked
• show signs of a previous, or attempted, break in