What exactly does qualify someone as sufficiently vulnerable?
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Version 0 of 1. Letters: Readers react to the news that the UK government is helping supermarkets target deliveries to vulnerable people, and question the effectiveness of its database Your report (UK government helps supermarkets target deliveries to vulnerable shoppers, 25 March) misses those who fall through the cracks. My 92-year-old mother does not have a computer or accounts with supermarkets. Therefore, she will not be contacted by the supermarkets now saying they “would begin writing to existing online customers”. I have spent the last week trying to order food for her. No supermarkets or online delivery services have any delivery slots. My mother is unlikely to be on the list of “the most vulnerable of 1.5 million people identified as needing assistance by the government” because, despite numerous requests, she is still waiting for a certificate of visual impairment, 10 weeks after being diagnosed as severely sight impaired.John BeggLondon • I am 75 years old and have tried to contact Sainsbury’s helpline to let them know I am elderly and self-isolating. The database mentioned in your article, while useful, will only register the “very vulnerable” – ie, the 1.5 million people with specific clinical conditions. There are nearly 10 million people aged 70 and over in England. Surely the database can be extended to allow us to register. It feels as if we have been abandoned.Gill NicolLondon • On Wednesday my father attempted to register himself as “extremely vulnerable” on the gov.uk website. Why? Because his local supermarket will only give him a home delivery slot if he appears on this database, and for some reason he wasn’t initially included. He’s 90, frail, has diabetes, walks slowly and with a cane, has a pacemaker and has recovered from a stroke. According to the portal he is “not vulnerable enough”. So according to the government the following don’t make you sufficiently vulnerable: not being able to get food and other supplies for yourself; being in the highest risk age group; having at least one underlying condition; living in a community of other elderly people who would be exposed to higher risks if they could go shopping for themselves. So what exactly does qualify as sufficiently vulnerable? And, perhaps just as importantly, why is there no way this can be addressed? I cannot believe my father is the only person in this situation.Edmund JonesBerkhamsted, Hertfordshire |