Left to freeze!!!

[OneBrightAzureBiscuit]

Hi, hope you all well. I just need some advice please. So me and my partner have a gas card for gas , same for electric. Anyways, our gas card broke and apparently an engineer was meant to come out for like 4 days. Anyways, we called them tonight after I had a massive asthma attack due to the freezing cold in the flat & the woman on the line said nothing could be done tonight. Yet the helpline is 24/7?

we are absolutely freezing in the flat- we have no heating or hot water BUT we have electric cos it’s a separate mains or something like that? So we do have a kettle, lights, oven etc.
just looking for advice on what to do and tips for staying warm immediately tonight. British Gas won’t help us at all, surely they have some sort of duty of care? The woman sounded shocked when we told her it’s been 4 days with no heat but yet wouldn’t help us. Any tips please?
we have been layering with blankets and drinking coffee&soup x

So she doen't need to lie about it and make up a child. All it'll do is mean they ask for proof, that she won't be able to get, and her status won't be updated until they get it.

She needs to call and push for a resolution, as others have said, like picking a blank card up from a PayZone place that has them. In the meantime, she can use her oven with the door open, or go out to a coffee shop/library/nearby designated warm space, where it'll be warm.

MNHQ will 'take a look'.

British Gas have got a priority list if you're vulnerable. Make sure you're on that.

But British Gas do have the worst customer service I have ever come across (made Ikea look like angels) so you have my sympathy.

Just to add to others.

Stay in bed if you can. Live in one room, probably easiest to do in the bed room.

If you don't have hot water bottles then you can, CAREFULLY, use glass bottles / jars. Boil the kettle, make a hot drink and when the left over water has cooled slightly pour in to jam jars or similar. Wrap in a towel and put in the bed. Take them out of the bed before you get in.

Layers, I agree with that, as many as possible.

Also if you are not on twitter / X join and message your gas provider stating what you have said here.

Check your local council for 'warm spaces' and if there are none have a look at libraries and leisure centres, libraries are free, leisure centres sometimes have 'spectator' tickets that are cheap. You can also take a shower and be warm.

Do you have an oven / microwave / air fryer that is working? Victorians used to use baked potatoes as hand warmers and put them in pockets again to keep warm. It still works today.

I've got a few plug in electric radiators for if our central heating breaks. You can get them on amazon

Post on local community groups online to see if any neighbour will lend you a small electric heater. My neighbour did this recently and within a couple of hours they had an electric heater for every room in their flat!

That's appalling but you can heat your house with electricity which hopefully the Gas company will refund you for. Borrow electric heaters from everyone you know. Also use heated electric blankets and fill up hot water bottles. Hope your gas is sorted soon.

Reading your previous threads there are a lot of inconsistencies but the one thing I haven’t seen change is the fact you are 19 and live at home.

most of the advice given here would be common sense to functioning adults, so why don’t you get your mum to sort it out rather than post here. The fact you live with her would mean the bills are probably in her name so there isn’t much you can do.

So why does she need to invent a small child?

Depends on the age of the meter. Ours is years old and can only be topped up with a card. They have refused to update due to issues with asbestos in property.

I used to work for a breakdown call centre and we took calls for "24 hour helplines" for couple of big companies, the "24 hour" aspect was at night we would take details down for them to look at in the morning. Meant nothing.

As has been said, get a couple of electric heaters, but also @OneBrightAzureBiscuit get in touch with your energy supplier and get on the Priority Needs Register.

I'd have thought they would have a duty of care, yes, but that doesn't necessarily mean immediate help. The engineers are always being called out, are very busy, and presumably you and your husband are not elderly or immobile. I am sorry about your asthma, cold air can exacerbate that in some people, the opposite in others. Do you not have any hot water bottles and/or a little electric fire? In my previous house I had a fan heater for emergencies, my boiler packed up about three years ago, during a very cold spell, and it took a few days to have a new one installed. However I managed. I downsized to a flat last year and only have electric now, it's very cosy.

I do hope someone comes around and sorts this dilemma out today. (t would happen during a cold spell. Good luck.

I'd say that, if you are looking for additional/supplementary electric heaters, the oil filled radiators are cheaper to run than the convector ones. They've got me out of a pickle more than once. About £40-£70 on Amazon, or you can usually get the same day from Argos, Screwfix, or a big Asda. They can work a treat. I'm currently being warmed by one whilst working from home. The storage heater in my spare room/office is rubbish.

OP it isn't acceptable that you're in this position but it would appear that you're a fully functioning adult ao there's surely solutions other than freezing so badly that you have an asthma attack. It isn't fair but sometimes you have to use a bit of your own initiative. Put dressing gowns/fleeces on. Get under a blanket/quilt. Use hot water bottles/heat pads. Get an electric heater from the supermarket/amazon, stay with a friend/family, put a shoutout asking if anyone has any heaters/electric blankets you can borrow. This should be being sorted but I am really baffled as to how in a modern house a fully compos mentis adult is so cold that they're ill even in the absence of central heating. And sorry but frail pensioners and children are likely much less capable of sorting these things out and much more vulnerable so they absolutely should get priority.

I would call them again and say you are vulnerable. Insist that they list you as vulnerable due to severe health issues- asthma. Also speak to LL or letting agent and see if there’s anything they can do.

Other than that, could you get a plug in heater/radiator to take the chill off in the lounge/bedroom?

Im assuming you won’t be back on the thread but maybe you could go and stay at your boyfriends house?

She's at her boyfriend's flat.

"So me and my partner have a gas card for gas , same for electric." from the OP's first post.

thanks, I completely forgot that part once I read through the thread.

in that case - go home OP? Pretty simple. If your boyfriend doesn’t have heating go back to your house 🤣🤣

Even with a gas card, with British Gas you can top up on an online account

We bought an electric heater when our gas was out of action a few years ago. They really heat the room quickly but you have to be prepared for a rise in the electric bill if you use it a lot.

It won't help now but you need to get a smart meter. No more going to the shops to top up with a card and they could have helped.

No immersion heater, electric shower? If you have a ll they could supply heaters or buy an inexpensive one and heat one room.