01 Apr Army veteran ‘doesn’t know if he’ll be alive at Christmas’ as he makes choice between eating and heating
An Army veteran has told how he doesn’t know if he will be alive by Christmas as he faces the tough choice between eating or heating due to rising cost of living.
George Ford said he currently owes more than £1400 to energy firms – and has no ideas how he will afford the rises in fuel.
The 75-year-old from Hull told GB News: “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.”
Pensioner George owes more than £1400 to his energy company, and with energy prices rising he’s worried he won’t be able to survive: “I know the things I suffer, COPD, heart trouble, I’ve got no feeling in my hands or my legs, 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.”
As George makes the tough choice between heating and eating, he says he’s lost nearly two stone in a month. Despite his own struggles, George still volunteers at a foodbank and says he feels sorry for other pensioners hit by the rise in energy prices.
He said: “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.”
George is not alone, as many fear the energy price hike that has started from today (April 1st).
Charities have warned that 2.5 million households are set to fall into “fuel stress” as domestic energy bills surge upwards. Citizens Advice believes around five million people would be unable to pay their energy bills from April, even accounting for the support the Government has already announced. With energy prices set to increase again in October, this number is expected to triple as 14 million are forecast to be unable to pay energy bills.
As a 54% increase to Ofgem’s price cap hit bills, the Resolution Foundation think tank said the number of English households in fuel stress – those spending at least 10% of their total budgets on energy bills – will double overnight from 2.5 to five million.
Resolution Foundation senior economist Jonathan Marshall said: “Today’s energy price cap rise will see the number of households experiencing fuel stress double to five million.
“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.”
