Given the recent horrific price rises in energy I know so many people are having or will have to choose between heating and eating. That phrase is a bit of a cliché but it sickens me in 2022 that people will basically have to decide whether their DC will be cold or hungry.
I was thinking (and we should not have to do this, but that's a whole other thread re politics) if it would be a good idea to have the equivalent of a food bank but for people struggling to pay energy bills, especially pre payment meters. I know legally you can change from pre payment meters but a lot of private landlords tell tenants that they can't, and if you have a debt it's harder.
I am fortunate enough to be on a fixed tarif paid by direct debit these days but I well remember the feeling of gas/elec running out, eking out the emergency fund and knowing you have to go to the shop with the last fiver in your purse to put it back on, or waiting until Friday when your wages or tax credit comes in. Worrying the freezer will defrost and knowing you and your DC will have to sit in the dark at 5pm. If you are used to putting £20 on your gas card on a Monday and it usually lasts til the weekend, the same amount now would run out much more quickly and you're handing over the money you need to spend on food etc. There is only so much jiggling of the budget you can do with a limited amount of money and fixed and rising costs.
If your gas or electric has run out and you have absolutely no cash left in your purse and your bank account is overdrawn by £7.51 (which is unauthorised and your bank will add another charge to that) what can you do? I was thinking it would be useful to have a similar equivalent to a food bank but where you could get your gas or electric topped up instead? Perhaps there are areas where this happens already but there doesn't seem to be anything local to where I live.