Needing assistance with heating your home also goes to seniors who have lived in their old farmhouse for generations, worked all their lives, and cannot afford new windows, fire wood or oil. Believe me, they do wear sweaters. There are a lot of working poor, through no fault of their own, can no longer pay what it costs anymore. It goes to 20 below zero with a windchill pushing it lower than 30 below where I live. People die trying to heat their house. The money also goes toward winterizing peoples home. Not everyone who gets assistance is lazy, this has been a good program in Vermont. I know loggers who provide wood for people. A friend of mine told me about a family who were burning everything they could find to put in their stove, including clothing that they would get from free clothing drives, cardboard from the dump, old christmas trees. Which gunks up the chimney and then the house burns down. The family he helped, Dad a disabled ex logger, Mom, two part time jobs. They were too proud to ask for help and someone from Church told my friend to bring up some wood for them.I can afford my four cords of wood, and I can afford my electricity bill to use back up oil filled radiators on those really cold days. We cover the northwest windows with plastic usually the first of December, and close off rooms during the day when the woodstove is blasting, Hang blankets over the doors on those 30 below nights. I am 75 and still collect a salary for taking in a disabled man as a boarder, providing him with care, and my son does the heavy lifting and transport that I can no longer do. But if I did not have that, I too would need assistance staying alive through winter, because my social security and meager savings would not cover both cordwood and electric. I get by on 4 cords of wood a season, buy it in May and let it season outdoors, have it stacked by my son. That is 1200 bucks right there, A few winters were mild, did not need the electric back up. Frozen pipes are not fun at my age, luckily we work at home to keep the stove going.
Needing assistance with heating your home also goes to seniors who have lived in their old farmhouse for generations, worked all their lives, and cannot afford new windows, fire wood or oil. Believe me, they do wear sweaters. There are a lot of working poor, through no fault of their own, can no longer pay what it costs anymore. It goes to 20 below zero with a windchill pushing it lower than 30 below where I live. People die trying to heat their house. The money also goes toward winterizing peoples home. Not everyone who gets assistance is lazy, this has been a good program in Vermont. I know loggers who provide wood for people. A friend of mine told me about a family who were burning everything they could find to put in their stove, including clothing that they would get from free clothing drives, cardboard from the dump, old christmas trees. Which gunks up the chimney and then the house burns down. The family he helped, Dad a disabled ex logger, Mom, two part time jobs. They were too proud to ask for help and someone from Church told my friend to bring up some wood for them.I can afford my four cords of wood, and I can afford my electricity bill to use back up oil filled radiators on those really cold days. We cover the northwest windows with plastic usually the first of December, and close off rooms during the day when the woodstove is blasting, Hang blankets over the doors on those 30 below nights. I am 75 and still collect a salary for taking in a disabled man as a boarder, providing him with care, and my son does the heavy lifting and transport that I can no longer do. But if I did not have that, I too would need assistance staying alive through winter, because my social security and meager savings would not cover both cordwood and electric. I get by on 4 cords of wood a season, buy it in May and let it season outdoors, have it stacked by my son. That is 1200 bucks right there, A few winters were mild, did not need the electric back up. Frozen pipes are not fun at my age, luckily we work at home to keep the stove going.