Though I would OPEN A DEBATE on the rising cost of fuel we are using.
Please feel free to say exactly how you feel ♥
I have put down a couple of examples which have been in the news, let your hair down and have a moan if you like ♥
Disabled people hit hardest by rising costs, charities warn - and help is needed
The increase cost in energy prices and the general cost of living is driving many families to debt.
Disabled people are twice as likely to struggle to heat their homes and will continue to bear the brunt of the cost of living crisis if they are not supported, charities warn.
There is a distinct lack of awareness of the extra costs 14 million disabled people in the UK face either for extra washing, electric wheelchair charging, powering oxygen machines and sensory mats to alert parents of night-time seizures - the list of constant power use is ever-growing.
Energy costs and the general increase in the cost of living is driving many families into debt.
Autistic man's bills have doubled in a few months
Dave Sheriff, 33, has autism and Down's syndrome, his bills have doubled in just a few months but cutting back and switching off essential equipment is not an option.
"He has a CPAP machine on throughout the night to help him sleep. We have things like his sensory lights on a lot, and his music things are on a lot and without them, his behaviour would become worse and we'd have further outgoings for breakages," explains Dave's mum, Helen Ashby.
"He has medical and behavioural issues that increase washing. So at the moment, we're doing about 50 loads of washing a week for a single person. Today, we've had five loads of washing from him. What other option do we have?"
Everything Dave uses are items essential for everyday living or essential for his behaviour.
It's led to mounting debt for the family as Dave's income is stagnant despite the costs rising.
Helen said: "I don't have extra money. I work full-time but as a single parent, I don't have additional funds. So anything extra goes on credit cards and then every three or four years that's converted into a consolidation loan.
"If I wasn't able to do that, he would go without and going without isn't as simple as me going without because it will have a knock-on effect on his behaviour, which can be quite disruptive.
"There has to be some comparable increase in benefits for people who can't work."
Basic needs becoming unaffordable
Shani Dhanda, who has a brittle bone disease, is a disability activist. She is grateful to be able to work but the extra costs for daily living are taking their toll.
Some of the unavoidable extra costs she faces include higher insurance rates, having to rely on taxis due to the inaccessibility of public transport and tailoring clothes to fit her.
Shani told Sky News these basic needs are becoming unaffordable for many.
"I think, as a society, we largely misunderstand disability. We don't have an accurate portrayal of disabled people in our lives," she said.
"That means we don't understand why disabled people face extra costs. If we don't understand the problem, how can we help to solve it? You know, it's hard to survive. I'm not even going to say thrive. It's hard to survive when you don't have a fair chance.
"My biggest fear is that more disabled people fall into poverty and not have a way to get out of it because your capacity to get out of poverty is largely based on your capability to work. Disabled people are twice as likely to be unemployed."
Worst of food price rises 'yet to come' - Tesco boss
Disabled people are twice as likely to be unable to heat their home
Charities like Disability Rights UK and Scope want to see targeted support to help disabled people with the rising cost of living.
James Taylor, director of strategy at Scope, told Sky News that disabled people are twice as likely to be unable to afford to heat their home and help is needed.
Eyewitness: Eat or heat now a 'huge reality', as councils face 'unprecedented' pleas for help
"Many are already making decisions about whether they heat their home, feed their family, the rising costs from energy, National Insurance to inflation, is only going to make those decisions worse," he said.
"We've got a really good system set up to pay people the welfare system, the benefits system, we really want to see the government use that to get targeted financial support for disabled people who are struggling.
"Some offset of cost is going to be great but it's nowhere near going to scratch the surface for how much disabled people then have to shell out over the next couple of months to be able to live."
A government spokesperson told Sky News that efforts to help low-income and vulnerable families are being made.
In a statement, they said: "We are committed to making the UK more inclusive and accessible for disabled people.
@nabob @Pinkaholic79 💖🦄🌺 @Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 @roz @harryflatters @Tanith @renatew5😺🐶 @duchess @Flotson @Flossy 🍰🍰🍰 and anyone interested
I'd love to join this conversation and tell everyone my thoughts - but if I did I'd have to throw myself off Justwannachat!. I'm in a good position - no mortgage and low outgoings. Have always been frugal - or mean as my family used to say - and looked after the money I had to work hard to get. For over 50 years I have always kept a very full food/household stuff cupboard - so I suppose I started stock piling for this latest crisis 50 years ago. Got into the habit of buying in bulk back in 1969 when I visited many wholesalers in the midlands area for my job - installing stock control and payrolls.
Wish everyone could be in a similar position.
we now have 3 of these handy heaters, and they are cheap to run too and brought 2 lots of the 3 replacement tubes as well.
If the gas prices rise too much then for next winter we are ready.
My friend brought one for her hubby who feels the cold and I was stunned to see how much heat comes from them so we brought one a week for the last 3 weeks, lounge, 2 bedrooms. They are cheap too £14.99 each and the replacement tubes £3.99 for three of them.
It is always good to have a back up if you can afford it as 20 years ago our radiators stopped working for about 3 weeks, it took that long for them to be fixed and I never had any other heating so we are now prepared. ( unless the electric goes off that is ha ah )
@nabob @Pinkaholic79 💖🦄🌺 @Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 @harryflatters @renatew5😺🐶 @Tanith @Flossy 🍰🍰🍰 @roz
I have invested in some compost to keep my veg beds topped up. My homemade compost (I have 3 compost bins) is not quite ready, only the one, an old council rubbish bin. I use the compost to cover the sown seeds after sifting it. Even after 3 years, there are little sticks and other bits not broken down. It is lovely stuff but takes 3 to 4 years to mature. Let's hope the veg will appreciate it. It is my essential expenditure but the cost is probably what a family of four pay out for a night at the cinema. @Happygirl @Janet 💋🍰🍝🍹 @Pinkaholic79 💖🦄🌺
No enemy on my behalf @renatew5😺🐶 ! We too only shop for the essentials once a week and a tiny top up mid week. Our heating is already off, and water only heats up 1h each morning so we can wash hehe. We're lucky enough to be a ble to pay off a little chunk of our mortgage by April and look at the options, and we too only have repayment one. We don't over moan about all the raising cost, the way I look at it, it's another to make us panic about something, then give it a few month and it will all sort itself out again.
Oh dear, I better keep my mouth shut and not voice my opinion. My mortgage repayments will of course go up but I am not moaning. After John had passed away, I had to re-mortgage the outstanding amount and the Halifax gave me the re-payment mortgage over twenty years. I was 60 then and soon 75. I always paid more and when my mortgage fell due to the interest cuts, I paid the same and some on top. At the last interest decrease, my monthly repayments were less than £90 per month. I shaved off 5 years on my repayments and on the 1st June, I owe nothing, the house is mine lock, stock and barrel. I never went for all these fangled options in mortgage repayments. I had a straight repayment one and when the interest went up, so did the payments and when the rates went down so did the payments.
If people would just carefully plan and look ahead they would not have to worry too much. The way prices have risen in gas, electric, water rates and council tax means I have to find an extra £120 per month so far. Well, so be it, my new windows for the back of the house just have to wait a little longer.
All this moaning about food prices and 'heating or eating', in my opinion, is a load of tosh. Have you ever looked at your fellow shoppers? The ones I see still have trolleys so full of stuff that it falls off when they turn corners and the trolleys are stuffed full with junk food for their starving 'little ones'. I noticed that only the older ones and pensioners are shopping carefully and buying the things they actually need.
Having no car and not squandering money on visits to pubs, cinemas and other ventures at a drop of a hat and all the extra bottles of booze and tobacco will make a lot of difference to the pounds in your bank accounts and wallets.
I hope the chancellor and government stay firm and will not uplift the universal credit by the £20 that was given during the pandemic. Oh dear, I now have made a lot of enemies. Is it a wonder that every migrant/immigrant wants to come to Great Britain, they still think that the streets here are paved with gold. Housed in hotels, given an
amount of £s and phones, any more and we soon will sink beneath the waves.
This is a disaster waiting to come for a while [@Happygirl], during lockdown we had it "cushty" in a way. So now they want their money back! It was obvious it would happen, I said it all along to hubby. In January I read that food would go up, it was predicted. Now they'll blame it on the war. It will go up now and again in October apparently. Our mortgage rate had gone up not long ago to 0.50% and by April it will by 0.75%! Luckily we have a cheap one, but not the point. Many many will struggle! All this increases and the wages don't go up enough to cope. What makes me mad the adverts still asking for charity. Right now charity starts home, if not careful ppl will lose thair homes, we're going to be in the 💩.
We have already noticed how much our usage and prices have gone up so far, I really do dread April 1st and I know this coming winter will be extremely hard for us and many other people too.I cannot let the heating go down below 20c due to my lungs and that means heating on all night too.
What is happening to our world ?