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

If your asthma is severe you should also be registered with their priority service. I'm ill and BG (never had this) come out more quickly and help more.

Turn the oven on open door
of it, if you can afford it buy an electric heater, hope it's sorted by now though

Efficiency has nothing to do with wealth - the country is question is Latvia, where they don't overpay their GPs, teachers, office workers - they receive a pittance compared to the West, that is why they are depopulated. But whatever they have, runs amazingly.

Oil heater 10000% best thing I've ever bought.

If the country is depopulated it must make it much easier to get things like a GP appointment.

Absolutely! But what is amazing, they did not decrease the number of GPs (they call them poly-clinic centres) when de-population started. At least, for now. It would be interesting to see if this continues or not.

And are expensive to use! Oil filled radiator would be less expensive but still a lot to use continuously.

You need to call British Gas up and say you want raise a complaint as you will be going to the ombudsman .

Considering OP doesn't know the difference between electricity and gas and appears to simply need a new gas card which could have been done days ago, I'm not sure the ombudsman will be much use....

You can purchase gas cards from the shop with a code after talking to your supplier, so I don’t understand why they haven’t done this for you

@OneBrightAzureBiscuit what @Anotherparkingthread suggested …

Check that you don't qualify for being on the priority register..... I'm guessing energy companies would suddenly become more helpful if you do. Check Freecycle for oil filled electric radiator or similar. Other than extra layers and getting advice from CAB but that's already been mentioned.
Good luck 👍 🤞

Suggest you find out who your local elected councillor is and contact them. They should help with emergency support. Good luck

Any update OP? I hope you are okay.

@AdoraBell - unlikely OP will be back. She starts many threads and doesn't return

Hope you get sorted. Can the gas meter be tipped up over the phone? We have a smart meter and used to have a prepayment card, when it didn’t work we’d ring and they’d top up over the phone.

not sure what duty of care landlords have these days, my son has been without heating or hot water for three weeks due to a faulty boiler. Son is a vulnerable adult but landlord not that fussed.

Buy a couple of heated blankets and wrap up in them. They are a brilliant investment and will save you £££s in the future too. We swear by ours and use them every evening. Quite cheap to run too.