An army veteran is worried about dying this year and has to choose between eating and heating because of how much his bills cost him.
The coronavirus pandemic, a lack of fuel supply and rising inflation has plunged the UK, into its worst cost of living crisis since records began in 1956.
Former soldier George Ford, 75, told GB News how he has no idea how he is going to afford an increase in his electricity and heating bills while already being £1,400 in debt to energy firms.
The veteran, who lives in Hull, said: ‘I sit here until about 10 o’clock with no light on.
‘I make a flask of coffee or tea to last me all the time so I’m not using so much but my bills never seem to go down, I can’t afford it.’
The pensioner went on to explain how he suffers from heart issues, a chronic lung disease and problems with having any feeling in his hands or legs.
He said: ‘I don’t think I’m going to be alive by Christmas because I can’t afford to keep myself warm. I’ll be honest, I just feel like dying.’
George added that he has lost almost two stone in just one month because he cannot afford to eat properly.
Despite the struggles George faces himself, he still makes an effort to regularly volunteer at a foodbank.
‘I won’t take anything from the foodbank because there’s families that need it, there’s children that need it more than I do,’ he said.
The energy price hike came into effect from today.
Charities have warned that this is set to plunge 2.5 million households into ‘fuel stress’.
Fuel stress, or fuel poverty, means a household is spending more than 10% of its total budgets on energy bills.
Citizens Advice believes around five million people will be unable to pay their energy bills from April, even accounting for the support the Government has already announced.
Energy bills are expected to increase again in October, estimated to take his number up to a devastating 14 million.
Resolution Foundation senior economist Jonathan Marshall said: ‘Another increase in energy bills this autumn hastens the need for more immediate support, as well as a clear, long-term strategy for improving home insulation, ramping up renewable and nuclear electricity generation, and reforming energy markets so that families’ energy bills are less dependent on global gas prices.’
Ofgem was forced to hike the energy price cap to a record £1,971 for a typical household as wholesale gas prices soared to unprecedented highs.
Websites of energy suppliers crashed yesterday as people rushed to submit their final meter readings before the price cap increase.
Rishi Sunak last week announced measures intended to help people with the rising cost of living.
They include cuts to income tax and fuel duty and doubling the Household Support Fund to £1billion in order to help the most vulnerable families with bills.
The support has been criticised by many for not being enough, especially Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer.
In a major speech in Bury on Thursday, he said: ‘Britain deserves better than the pathetic response we got to the Conservative cost of living crisis in the mini-Budget.
‘You know the reality – prices are going through the roof, and wages are going through the floor.
‘Even allowing for everything the Chancellor announced, families are £2,620 worse off. Britain deserves better than this. Working families feel more insecure than ever.
‘While prices are rising in the supermarkets, at the petrol pumps and in our electricity bills, the government has chosen to put up national insurance at exactly the wrong time.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
from News – Metro https://ift.tt/neSuDV1
0 Comments