Vulnerable and disabled households bear the brunt of the energy crisis

Disabled and elderly households have been pushed to the brink of financial disaster by rising energy bills and will bear the brunt of the cost of living crisis, campaigners have warned.

Families using life-saving equipment now pay £ 900 more a year than the average household, according to disability charity Contact. This has risen from £ 600 after the spike in energy bills earlier this month.

The cost of running ventilators and monitors has soared, while travel to hospital appointments has been made more expensive by rising fuel prices and train fares.

Amanda Batten, of Contact, said: “Families are genuinely fearful about how they will pay the bills. Essential equipment such as food pumps and hoists – or more washing because of continence issues – all add up.”

Ms Batten warned families have had to cut back on heating and vital aids, which posed “a real risk to the health and wellbeing” of disabled children.

Marie Cavalier, 41, from Halifax, said she and her husband were now paying hundreds of pounds more to ensure that their daughter Annie, 12, receives the care she needs.

She suffers from Sturge- Weber syndrome, a rare neurological condition that requires an epilepsy sensor mat that acts as an alarm system for seizures. It is powered by electricity and in use throughout the night. The family also frequently travel to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London from their home near Halifax.

Their energy bills have almost doubled from £197 a month to £365, while the cost of return train travel to London, which was once about £ 80, is now more than £ 300. Ms Cavalier said: “Families with disabled children have always had additional costs, but the cost of living crisis has made it much worse. There are so many hidden costs. We have switched to bottles of oxygen for Annie rather than an oxygen machine, because it is cheaper [ without the use of electricity].” She and her husband are both self- employed and do not qualify for any financial help or grants for Annie’s care. Scope, another disability charity, said its helpline had been “inundated” by disabled people facing “impossible choices”. James Taylor, from the charity, said: “There are disabled people who are having only one meal a day.” Rachel Mortimer