THE cost of living crisis has hit every Brit hard – but one section of society is suffering more than most.
Disabled Brits are £1,000 a month worse off than everyone else as they face raised energy prices to charge specialist equipment, and pay more than ever on work to adapt their homes.
Hyde News & PicturesLauren Freitas has seen her energy bills rise to £6,000 a year[/caption]
Scope charity’s annual Disability Price Tag report reveals that the average disabled household needs an extra £1,122 per month to have the same standard of living as other Brits.
It comes after statistics revealed two in five disabled people were unable to heat their homes properly last winter.
The Sun has been running our award-winning Give It Back campaign to help disabled families get the support they need. Just four per cent of families with disabled children said they got the help they needed.
So we partnered with the Disabled Children’s Partnership, highlighting the £573m funding gap for disabled children and urging the Government to address this.
In February we told how parents of disabled children are being pushed out of work because they are not getting enough support.
Scope is now calling for a social energy tariff to slash bills for the disabled and their families.
Scope’s executive director of social change said: “The current cost of living crisis and dizzying price rises has only exacerbated the financial challenges faced by disabled households.
“At Scope our helplines are ringing off the hook with calls from people who have nowhere else to turn.
“The government must act quickly and introduce a social energy tariff, which would mean a discounted bill for disabled people. We can’t wait any longer.”
Energy bills hit £6K a year
Lauren wants to see energy bills slashed for families of disabled kidsSupplied
Lauren, of Basingstoke, is a full time carer for disabled son Cohen, sixSupplied
Lauren Freitas, 35, knows the struggle all too well.
The mum-of-three, of Basingstoke, is a full time carer for disabled son Cohen, six, and has seen her energy bills rocket to £6,000 a year.
She has to charge Cohen’s feeding pump each night and has an electric stair lift to help the little boy, who was found to have two genetic deletions at birth.
She also has copious amounts of washing.
She says: “Every day Cohen comes home from school with about five or six bibs that he’s been through in the space of six hours.
“He comes home with soiled clothes so they need to go in the wash, as well as all the bibs he uses at home with us and his pyjamas from the night before. There’s always something that needs washing.”
The Government needs to take into account the extra cost for parents caring for a disabled child
Lauren Freitas
Lauren – who is married to warehouse worker Mauricio, also 35, and has two teenage sons Malakye, 17 and Tyio, 14 – says it’s got to the stage where having days out as a family is almost impossible.
She says: “It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be choosing whether we go on days out to keep Cohen happy and doing things with my other boys as well. We’re probably going to have to stop doing things like that.”
Lauren adds: “The Government needs to take into account the extra cost for parents caring for a disabled child.
“I don’t use these things because they’re fun to use. I use them because I have to.”
Keep heating off
SuppliedDave Wood has seen his bills go up by 30 per cent[/caption]
Osteoarthritis sufferer Dave Wood has seen his utility bills jump from £140 to £260 a month.
IT engineer Dave, 45, who lives in Mansfield with wife Gillie, 55, says: “During the winter months, we had to make choices about when we had the heating on.
“We would sit with blankets on rather than running the heating during the evenings.
“Since becoming disabled my bills have gone up 25 to 30 per cent, because we don’t go out as much and spend more time at home.”
Ten months ago Dave and Gillie had to move to a house more suited to his disability.
Since moving their rent has gone up £100 a month and they had to fork out £3,000 for the move itself.
The couple have also spent between £12,000 – £15,000 on making accessibility improvements and buying equipment for their new home.
Rely on food banks
SuppliedFamilies like Jemma and Peter struggle to make ends meet[/caption]
Meanwhile Jemma Howard, 31, from Ballymoney, Northern Ireland, has found herself so broke in recent times that she’s had to rely on her family and neighbours for handouts.
Jemma is a full time carer for her three-year-old twins – Ava, who has a rare multi-system developmental disorder called ZTTK syndrome, and Olly, who has autism.
Ava’s syndrome affects most of her organs and causes delayed psychomotor development and intellectual disability. She is also deaf in both ears and is sight impaired
Jemma receives Carers Allowance and Disability Living Allowance for Ava, and her partner Peter, 34, who works part time in their local Tesco, picks up extra shifts when he can to earn more cash.
We struggled to pay for basic necessities and even had to borrow money from family members
Jemma Howard
But the couple still have to rely on help from family and friends to get by and have even used food banks to help feed their family.
Jemma says: “We struggled to pay for basic necessities and even had to borrow money from family members and had help kindly given from neighbours, including food from the food bank and clothes.”
Ava is fed through a feeding machine that has to be charged constantly and uses a nebulizer daily
Jemma also needs to give her regular baths due to her daughter’s Gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), which makes her stomach acid repeatedly flow back into the oesophagus, causing vomiting.
The heating needs to be kept on too, as Ava is unable to regulate her body temperature.
The couple currently spend £80 per week on gas, electricity and food which leaves little left for treats.
Jemma says: “Our situation has left us particularly vulnerable to the rising costs of living.
“Olly wants to go to the beach or he wants to go to sensory classes or play centres and I just can’t because it’s just too much to drive there, too much to pay for and I’d rather bring my own food because it’s too expensive.”
To find out more about ZTTK Syndrome click here.
