Crying single mum tells LBC she's eating her children's leftovers due to energy costs
1 April 2022, 12:31 | Updated: 1 April 2022, 13:24
Caller admits she and her family are eating one meal a day.
This was the harrowing moment a single mother told James O'Brien that she and her children are eating one meal a day and not using their heating, as the cost-of-living crisis hits.
It comes as Brits are waking up this morning to a massive hike on the limit they can be charged for energy, as MPs awoke to a £2,000 pay rise.
Experts have issued stark warnings that people in the UK will starve, freeze and could consider suicide as they desperately struggle to pay soaring energy bills from this month.
Today Ofgem raised the price cap of gas and electricity, seeing it soar by 54 per cent this morning to £1,971 for an average home to compared to £1,277 yesterday. Experts predict it will be around £2,700-a-year from October.
The huge jump in price sparked the founder of energy company Utilita, Bill Bullen, to urge households to cut their energy usage and behaviour by layering up and insulating their homes.
"I turned the boiler off a long time ago, and we use hot water bottles," caller Zara told James as she fought back tears.
"I've got jumpers on the children, my mum's knitted socks. I've got a condition where I can't regulate my body heat.
"I didn't even want to come on James.
"I work, and they say work is supposed to pay. And I'm on tax credits for my children, my income seems to go onto the bills and council tax."
Read more: Zahawi backs under-fire Sunak as Tories say more help is needed on eve of soaring bills
Zara explained she was being charged as a single adult for council tax, but that once her sixth-former son turned 18-years-old she was told "right, you pay full council tax".
"Even if you're working full time James, they don't understand, for a single person, with three children," she explained.
"I try and feed them. We have one meal a day James, they go without breakfast, and they choose too. I try and give them fruit, bananas in the morning.
"They all say 'mum I'm fine', but it's the guilt I live with that I make sure I give them a meal... in the evening. I'll eat their leftovers James, that's the situation."
Read more: 'I didn’t think it would be this bad': Martin Lewis warns energy bills could exceed £2,500
