No money for heating as well as food... I even set up a GoFundMe account
SINGLE mum Beth Connock can no longer afford to keep the house warm and feed her two children after her heating bills soared by 80%.
The 28-year-old mum of two, who is a full-time carer to disabled son Tommy, five, has now lived without heating for more than a month.
She said: “It’s really upsetting because I feel like a failure of a mother. It’s quite upsetting. No one should have to choose between feeding or heating.”
Beth is one of the 1.5 million UK households where heating is powered by oil as her home in rural
Somerset is not on mains gas.
The cost of
500 litres of oil, less than half a tank, jumped from £210 to £380. Beth’s rent has gone up £25 a month too.
Now Beth, Tommy and Gabby, three, have to share a bed to stay warm. They have a tiny electric heater for the bedroom but can see their breath in their living room.
Beth puts them in jumpers and scarves but Tommy, who is autistic, struggles with feeling so bundled up.
She says: “I shut the bedroom door to keep our body heat in but as soon as we go downstairs it is freezing and we’re all shivering.
“It’s a very old draughty cottage, I woke up the other morning around 5am to find ice around the windowsill.
“We’re wearing a lot more clothes, which means a lot more washing and a backlog of clothes as we wait days for things to dry. It’s also a choice when it comes to hot water – if the kids have a bath, I can’t have a shower as well.”
She added: “February and March can be the coldest months so I needed to get something done quickly.”
Beth is unable to work after becoming Tommy’s carer due to his severe epilepsy and the family rely on Universal Credit and disability allowance.
She added of the financial pressure on her: “It got to the point where I was desperate for heating and I just had to set up a GoFundMe page.”
She plans to donate any excess to charity The Daisy Garland, which supported her family while Tommy was in hospital for nine weeks in 2020 due to seizures.