Support for your lung condition: helping you with rising living costs
Dr Andy Whittamore Clinical Lead at Asthma + Lung UK and a practising GP gives an update on how the rising cost of living is affecting people with lung conditions. Andy explains what we’re calling for the government to do to help people with lung conditions and also outlines some of the support available and advice to stay well.
You may have seen a lot in the news about rising living costs in the UK and this is clearly worrying to many people with lung conditions. We have seen a 45% increase in people calling our helpline to get financial advice.
We are here to help, by giving information about welfare benefits that can be claimed and giving support on how to manage different lung conditions.
An important issue for people with a lung condition
At Asthma + Lung UK, we’re concerned by what inflation and increasing household bills like food, gas and electric will mean for more and more people with lung conditions across the UK, and the unique challenges you might face if you have a lung condition, such as the need to find money to pay for your prescriptions or for higher energy bills to use your medical devices.
We’re campaigning alongside other charities as members of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, asking for more support for people with lung conditions.
Here I’ve outlined some of the key issues people are contacting us about and offer some practical advice and information:
Help with household costs
We know from our helpline that rising energy prices are making it harder for many people to keep their heating on.
If you struggle to heat your home, our advice is here to help. Some things people can do to stay warm and well include wearing layers of clothing to trap warm air better rather than one bulky layer, keeping active, and drinking plenty of hot drinks.
While we want the government to offer more help to more people, there is some support available to households, including winter fuel payments, a tax-free payment for people based on age, and cold weather payments, which are usually made to people on various income-related benefits.
There is more information on our benefits support page.
Help with paying for prescriptions
We campaign to scrap unfair prescription charges because we know these charges make it harder for millions of people in England to afford their life-saving medicines and inhalers. Shockingly, our research shows that 57% of people with asthma in England skipped their asthma medication because of the cost, with most of these people saying they noticed their symptoms getting worse as a result.
But we want to encourage everyone to take their medication as prescribed to stay well so if you don’t know about it already you might want to use this pre-payment certificate to help reduce costs, or you may qualify for the NHS Low Income Scheme.
Help with managing your lung condition
Taking your medication as prescribed and managing your triggers well, is one of the best ways you can stay well, and we have all sorts of advice to help you with this:
Our helpline is available from 9am – 5pm every day if you would like to chat to one of our advisers. They can offer advice on managing your lung condition, options about medication and treatment, and welfare benefits that can be claimed.
If you don’t have time to call, you can also message the team via helpline@asthmaandlung.org.uk
If your query is about asthma, you can also send a WhatsApp message on 07378 606 728
Do have a look at our website too, where we have a range of health advice, links to support groups and more.
We’re here for you
We will continue to fight for everyone with a lung condition and your right to breathe and will update you on our progress but in the meantime, our helpline team is also here to give practical advice and information to help you manage.
Why not save our support services page so you can come back to it whenever you need us.
At Asthma + Lung UK, we want no one left fighting for breath without knowing what’s happening to them. Read our report to find out what we’re fighting for.
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