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‘I’m scared when anyone says winter’: shocking tales from UK energy crisis frontline
(The Guardian, 26 Aug 2022) For the Zinthiya Trust and those in Leicester who it helps, the price cap rise is just one in a stack of mounting problems.
A tear rolls down Shama Omar’s face. She is describing the pain of her disabled daughter’s death last year, after 29 years of attentive care. It is a familiar tale of delays and stretched health service resources. “If the GP had seen her on that day, my daughter would have not died,” she says.
Now, she is surviving on one cooked meal every two weeks, deciding on whether to pay for council tax, food or water next. “I need to take cancer medication, which gives me hot flushes but I can’t afford to have the fan on all the time,” says Omar. “I had to think whether to spend £4.60 for the bus here, that could have helped me make meals for two days.”
Omar is among the millions waiting to see what further support government may offer for energy bills. On Friday, the industry regulator announced yet another rise in the price cap, pushing average household bills to £3,549 a year from October. By January, two-thirds of households in the UK are expected to be in fuel poverty.
The Guardian, 26 Aug 2022: ‘I’m scared when anyone says winter’: shocking tales from UK energy crisis frontline
