British pensioners are so hard up they get handouts from Iceland

THE third-world status of Britain’s pensioners was revealed yesterday when it emerged that Iceland is sending clothes to help them keep warm.

Radio show presenter Heimir Karlsson with one of the gifts Radio show presenter Heimir Karlsson with one of the gifts

The plight of those who cannot afford to heat their homes as temperatures plunge has so touched the hearts of Icelanders that they responded in their thousands to a plea for help.

A 20ft container filled with woollen jumpers, socks and blankets will arrive at Grimsby on Monday following an appeal on an Icelandic radio show.

The appeal was started by the show’s presenters, Heimir Karlsson and Kolbrun Bjornsdottir.

They featured a Daily Express story warning that up to one in 12 UK pensioners could die this winter because of the cold weather.

Neil Duncan-Jordan, of the National Pensioners Convention, said yesterday: “This is a fantastic and generous act of compassion from the people of Iceland, particularly at a time when their own economic situation is extremely difficult.

“But it is also a shocking indictment of the UK Government’s complete inability to tackle properly the problem of winter deaths amongst older people.”

He added: “We hope this act of kindness will shame the Government into raising the state pension and the winter fuel allowance so that pensioners have the confidence to turn on the heating when they need it without the fear of what it might cost.”

Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, said: “It is a scandal that the UK Government has proved so incapable of keeping our older people warm that other countries have felt the need to help out.

“While it is very generous of the people of Iceland to send warm clothing, the UK Government should be ashamed that in the fifth richest nation of the world our older people have to rely on the charity of others.

“It’s high time the Government tackled the national embarrassment of fuel poverty once and for all.”

Mr Karlsson, of the radio station Bylgjan, read the Daily Express story on the internet and then interviewed an Icelander, Njall Hardarson, now living in Manchester, who explained the problems faced by many older people in Britain.

The response from listeners prompted the idea of collecting garments made from unique Icelandic wool and shipping them to British pensioners who are struggling to pay their fuel bills and keep warm in the current cold spell.

A large freight company, Samskip, offered to ship the garments over and other businesses offered bags and boxes to pack them in. The Icelandic organisers hope formally to hand over the clothes at the end of next week to a welfare organisation in Hull, which is twinned with the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. The charity will then distribute them to pensioners.

Mr Karlsson added: “When we broadcast the story that UK pensioners were dying from the cold our listeners could not believe their own ears.

“We decided to give the Icelandic nation four days to fill a 20ft container of pure Icelandic wool for the pensioners in Britain. Families, some from far away, came one after another with garments to fill the container.

“Some of the sweaters were brand new. One nine-year-old girl gathered 37 beautiful sweaters and delivered them to us.”

The Daily Express crusade Respect for the Elderly has called on the Government to ensure that pensioners can keep warm through the winter by increasing pensions and fuel payments.

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