I haven't been able to put my heating on yet

[Anono2022]

I know I'm one of MANY, but I cant help be feel like a bloody failure right now!

I work full time in a school support role for SEN. I have a SEN child myself. I am a single parent with no help from father. Literally everything falls on me.
I'm miserable. i cant heat our home! My monthly electricity is coming in at 170 alone and I'm only paying 100 which is the maximum I can afford! After outgoings have all gone out I have very limited money to feed us on. How the hell am i meant to afford to put the the heating on? Any help available to me is limited due to me having a mortgage.
I feel ashamed and very lonely as everyone around me has a partner/decent two income household. No one understands how tight my finances are.
I come home from work and I often cry because I cant afford even a simple lifestyle. I'm utterly miserable and frozen!

This is just a vent really as I know I am one of very very many. But God I feel shit that i feel like im doing my very best and its not good enough.

We are so close to Xmas now and I've not even brought a single thing. How can I be excited for Christmas when I cant even keep us warm.

that bill its so high. I live in 5 bedroom house with 2 adults 5 kids. Using heating all the time. Tv never off. Lights on everywhere. My monthly bill usually around £124-£130. But the company charge me for £225 which i dont mind because it will accumulate anyway. I think the electricity company charge you £170 but thats not your real usage?. Call the company and ask why its so high.

So sorry your in this situation. Check with charities regarding heating vouchers. Also can you register with a charity so your child gets a pressie this Xmas? There's loads of local ones near me where I donate to at Xmas time and it ensures children who would otherwise get nothing, wake up to a present from Santa on Christmas morning. This post makes me so angry at the government, none of them are freezing in their houses with their children!

As I said, the meter needs checking. They can go wrong, even if they're never touched, just as my water meter did.
Your energy company will come out and check it if you ask.

You will be getting the 66 pounds off every month @Anono2022 so don't forget that. However your electricity usage is high - we are 120 pounds a month on the current prices.

Are you all electric or do you have gas too?

There is an extra £200 support in the new year of you don't have gas.

If you are all electric are you on E7/E10 and are you making full use of it? Do you understand your heaters?

Do you have a smart meter? What is your actual monthly usage? Does your monthly DD include debt repayment or are you in credit?

Have you checked you are receiving all the help you are entitled to?

They'll normally ask for a 7 day read before sending anyone out - expect them to ask you to take a reading at the same time every day.

If you can, take a note of the meter before and after a shower. It won't be perfect but it will give you an idea of how much electricity is being used. Electric showers really do take a lot of energy.
It does sound like you don't use a lot of energy elsewhere either.

Is your shower an electric shower? Perhaps that's why it is so high?

Do you have help with the DLA tribunal? I volunteer to help with adult PIP tribunals through a charity and I imagine there are charities who do the same for DLA.

Is your water heated by gas or electricity, OP?

Are the showers gradually getting longer? Is your child old enough to understand that it is unaffordable and that you may be able to use some heating if he was out in say 10 minutes?

I dont know who can help me with the DLA tribunal. I was close to calling it a day when I saw the sencos dishonest reports as I don't know how to get past her lies? I mean they have had professional evidence which has gone against her opinions. It has made no difference.

I'm going to start taking daily readings. Thank you for the advice. In winter we have always used 400+ units of electricity a month which was 'normal ' for us. Now I'm wondering why.

Unfortunately my son has memory issues and is delayed in his age. You can tell him a million times but he can't retain anything. OT is working with us on this because at the moment his short term memory is worrying. He has complex sensory needs. He has to be supervised in the shower and needs help with his hygiene. He is encouraged to get out quicker but as I said before the water is calming for him. He feels constant pain in his body and has to be constantly moving. He is very aware of how uncomfortable he feels and it often upsets him. He used to sit in baths but he would hold himself under which was always a worry. The water makes his body feel relaxed, calm and pain free. It's the only time he can remain 'still-ish'. Even just holding his hands under the tap can be very calming for him. But then he leaves the taps running as he cant fully turn them off

You could try the following OP to help work out what is using the most electricity-take a meter reading, turn everything off for a short period then take another reading. It should be the same. Turn all your back ground items back on, like the fridge etc. Take another reading. It should increase a little bit. Finally, you can do the next bit in stages. When you are using a higher usage/occasional appliance, take a reading before and after. This should help you work out if its lots of little things or one main culprit.

Our oven, for example, is awful on electric but heats the house! The shower burns quite a bit. Hairdryers use a surprising amount. On cold days, I actively reduce electric use so we can afford the gas. Absolute maximum total per day has to be £10.

If you are paying £100, £166-soon to be £167-will be credited on your bill due to EBSS.

Citizens advice, Scope, National Autistic society, Reach, Cerebra can offer advice/help with DLA appeals. Please don't call it a day. You have every right to get the help you need.
It does sound like the electric shower may be a big contributor as they are expensive to run. If he has sensory issues and a shower is his calming place then I would be looking for a way of financial help because he needs his showers, bless him. Are you receiving the £66 a month off the government?

Your usage does sound high, we pay a lot less than that for electricity for an old four bed. Although it does sound like the showers will be contributing, we have a smart meter and it clearly spikes when the electric shower is on. I know you said your DS uses it as a coping mechanism but that will have the knock on of higher costs for you so you do need to think about that if you can’t afford it.

A 4 bedroom house and your monthly bill is £113!!!!

You have to got to be kidding !! What firm are you with?

WTAF? I'm thinking our December bill will be at least £270 for gas and electric and we have the heating on for around 3 hours in the evening only. Semi detached 4 bedroom house

I know you said your DS uses it as a coping mechanism but that will have the knock on of higher costs for you so you do need to think about that if you can’t afford it.
Yes, it would simply have not been an option when I was a child due to the cost. I'm autistic and long hot showers calm me but I can't have them, it's two minutes and out. I look forward to four minutes to wash my hair. Have you looked at other things like a weighted blanket?

My heart goes to you OP. Bless you and your little ones.
You are paying a fortune in electricity though. Maybe you can scrap something on that.
We have electric fan heaters. They do not use a huge amount of electricity. We put them only on the room we are in, close to us. Oodies and throws. We sit in bed under the duvet to watch TV or films. At weekends, we go out for a good part of the day, even just to walk around shopping centres, where it is warmer. Hot water bottles help to sleep ever so happily. And we are batch cooking, putting as many trays as will fit in the oven at a time, then freeze. I almost never use the oven for a single meal anymore.
We are getting by. 3 of us for less than 130 per month in energy. We used to pay around 90 per month and be able to use the central heating.
On money, we are ok, but on Kwh, we have nailed it! Our graphs are showing massive reductions. That is because we have gone all electric bar the central heating, which would cost us around £8 per day!

Can't you dry the washing naturally? Outside when you can and indoors on laundry racks?

I think also re the showers, once you work out how much they cost:

If the cost of them is as big a proportion of your spend as it looks like it will be, then you could save quite a lot even cutting them down to e.g. 22 minutes. That would be a 25% saving per shower, which 30x a month might make a difference.

And that would still be a really long shower so it might not feel like such a hardship to cut the time back to that.

I’m sure she’d already be doing this if it was an option and likely to happen

I think you should check your electricity bill. £170 monthly without heating is very high.

The UC support for people with mortgages is basically nothing. I used to get £60pcm UC, but when I upped my hours it went down to nothing. And this was still with my income not meeting the threshold for paying any tax.

It's awful that you can get UC to pay someone else's mortgage but not your own.

Get in touch with “fightback4justice” to help you with your appeal.

Please don’t worry about the debt - they are actually VERY limited as to what they can do if there is a child with a disability in the house!

I live in a brutal climate where the average bill is projected to be £10k/pa and I’m using 30 kWh/day right now (electric only).

I take meter readings every Monday to keep an eye on what’s going on/give me ammo for tedious conversations with the power companies who like to pluck numbers out of their arses.

We have electric fan heaters. They do not use a huge amount of electricity.

Pleaser don't recommend fan heaters to someone with such a high electricity bill. They use a LOT of electricity.

If you have gas central treating, it's cheaper to have that on than to run fan heaters.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/experts/article-2084772/Is-radiator-electric-fan-heater-cheaper.html