@SaintJavelin
We will not be able to afford heating next winter, it’s that simple and millions of people will be in a similar situation.
I understand some people wanted to go back to the good old days but this is a bit extreme.
We were struggling 2 years ago, before Covid struck the world, but we were finally starting to drag ourselves out of debt and feel like we were getting somewhere. Covid took half our household income ( a whopping £14K total, two wages at that time )away overnight.....then despite going into work every day shit scared if THIS was going to be the day i got ill.....last aug I did get ill, did what the gov ordered and stayed home for 10 days, worst week of my life, to be told by my employer I was unreliable and had been replaced. The jobcentre refused to help , stating I had made myself intentionally unemployed by not going into work. A few weeks later my mum died, and my dad ended up in hospital with covid and almost didnt make it. I missed 6 weeks of bills, just 6 weeks, the council refused to help or allow me time to catch up and took me to court for the whole of the rest of the years worth of instalments in one hit, the water company kept calling and writing also refusing to let me catch up. I am still ill now, we already cannot afford to eat more than once a day, one shower a week, one wash load, not had any heating for a year anyway, there havent been any luxuries to cut for a few years now so nothing to look forward to except even less food, wear dirtier clothes for longer, and even more debt. We already run out of electricity a couple of days a week. Frankly if it wasnt for trying to keep going for my son I would have walked off into the wilds and given up some time ago. Feels like there is no hope and no point in continuing. You're either well off, lucky and have it all, or else you're left by the wayside with nothing, hard work means nothing without a big slice of luck involved. I just sat and went through the meagre accounts.. £1.5K is all it would take to clear to debts left, stock up on food and pay the bills ahead for the next 6 months, buy us time to continue jobhunting etc but that may as well be £1M for how accessible that amount is. This time next year that figure likely to be treble.All I can see ahead is more illness, homelessness and failure. This is one families reality, and I know there are thousands of families in even worse situations right now. Something will have to give eventually, surely. When you hit rock bottom there is nowhere left to fall and no energy left to crawl