A WOMAN whose bedroom window iced over on the inside has revealed her fuel poverty battle as The National launches an energy campaign.
The mother, who The National has agreed to refer to as Ally, spoke on the condition that we did not reveal her full identity. That’s because neither her friends nor family know about how bad things became in her city flat. However, she has agreed to tell her story as The National and Together Energy team up for a new scheme aimed at saving householders money and tackling fuel poverty. For each new customer who signs up in the first month, £60 will go to beat the problem, with the money distributed through food banks. And thereafter, 10% of The National’s proceeds for each sign-up will go to that cause every month.
Almost one-quarter of Scottish households are fuel poor, according to estimates. But no-one knows the true scale because many of those affected do not come forward.
Ally, 32, hid her troubles from loved ones. “I had a job and although I had money for rent and buses into work, I didn’t have enough for everything,” she said. “I felt like a failure. I didn’t want anyone to know so I just stayed in one room and only turned the other lights and the heaters on if someone came round. I’d say I’d just got in and it hadn’t warmed up yet.”
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The office worker was living in a tenement and has since secured a job with better pay and moved to modern accommodation. However, she remembers piling as many as five blankets on top of her bed at night through the winter months.
The worst point, she says, was during pregnancy with her first child, when the window of her unheated bedroom became “thick with ice” overnight. “When I opened the blinds I thought it was on the outside,” she said. “But then I touched the glass and it was thick with ice on the inside, which was a wake-up about how cold the place was.
“About that time I became really unwell with breathing problems and I was told to stay inside, out of the cold, but the place was freezing. I know that was doing me harm.”
READ MORE: Protect energy bills from Brexit with The National's energy tariff
Ally, then living in Glasgow, says she worried about what would happen when her baby was born. However, the stress of saving to create a warm environment for a newborn saw her cut back further on her outgoings and restrict her lifestyle.
“I saw less of friends and there was no money for extras like meeting up for a coffee,” she said. “Normally when you’re having a baby you save up for clothes and a pram but I also needed to have that money aside for bills during maternity leave, when I’d be at home during the day and I’d have less pay coming in. The stress was horrible – I thought about money all the time.”
Ally sought support from advice services to manage her finances and has since turned her life around. However, she finds it “horrifying” that so many Scots live in fuel poverty.
“It can happen to anyone,” she said. “I had a ‘good’ job but my wages weren’t enough to cover all the basics. I had high ceilings so rooms were hard to heat and old windows that let it out. If you’re renting, you can’t force your landlord to get work done and it’s not easy to just find somewhere else.
“It’s really horrible to come home to a dark, cold place – it makes you feel so low – and there are people who have it much worse than I did.”
To join The National’s deal, visit bit.ly/national500 and fight poverty through our Together Energy Green Brexit Protect 25 Month tariff.
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