Families can’t heat homes (From thisisoxfordshire)

Families can’t heat homes

2:00pm Tuesday 9th February 2010

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MORE West Oxfordshire residents cannot afford to heat their homes as a second winter cold snap grips.

In the past nine months, families seeking help with their fuel bills have gone up by 39 per cent in the area.

And this week, the West Oxfordshire Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) admitted it was struggling to cope with the increase in numbers.

Barbara Shaw, manager of the Witney CAB branch, said: “We try to keep abreast with demand, but there are always more people out there that need us than we can cope with.

“We are giving everybody some kind of service, even if it is signposting them on to another organisation. What we are not doing is giving everybody full in-depth advice.

“We have a certain capacity, and there comes a point where we cannot deal with any more people.”

Between April 2008 and December 2008, 97 people asked for help as they could not pay their bills, but the number increased to 135 people over the same period in 2009.

Mrs Shaw said that majority in fuel poverty were between 35 and 49 years old.

New parents Sharon Brown, 32, and partner Christopher Keep, 37, forego buying non-essentials so they can heat their home for three-month-old daughter, Rebecca Keep.

Miss Brown, of Black Bourton Road, Carterton, said: “It is very difficult. We have to watch what spending we do. We both go without everything else that we used to buy, like clothes. I have got a lot of maternity clothes that I am still wearing, as I just cannot afford new clothes.

“I think there should be more help, especially with people with young babies, where you have no choice but to keep the house warm, with the cold weather we have been having.”

Miss Brown, who works as a carer, added: “I am on maternity leave, and currently earning £123 a week, which isn’t a lot.

“Our gas bill came to £150, and our electric was £60 for three months, which is an awful lot of money, with having a little one. It’s difficult, as my partner doesn’t earn an awful lot either.”

Across the county, the number of people living in fuel poverty has increased by 46 per cent. Between April and December 2009, 682 people sought help, compared to 468 the previous year.

In Oxford, 162 people came to the bureau about problems paying their heating bills in 2009, compared to 96 people in 2008.

Nationally, in the same period, 56,777 needed help in 2008, which jumped to 80,522 in 2009 — a 42 per cent increase.

Mrs Shaw said: “A lot of people have said that they can’t afford to put money on to their key meters, so they have no heat in their homes. That has great impact on people with young families and older people in the community, especially with the really cold weather we have been having.

“The cause is partly to do with the recession and the fact there are a lot of people struggling financially. We have a lot of people made redundant, or losing their jobs, or shorter working hours, and suffering loss of income.

“In addition to that, the cost of fuel is going up with the cold weather. When normally you expect not to have your heating on all of the time, people are worried the pipes will burst, schools have been off, so children have been at home — people are using far more fuel during this cold snap than we would normally.”

Rob Curtis, 72, of Square Firs, Combe, said: “Paying my fuel bills are definitely a problem because I am only on a state pension.

“Yes, I do have to do without to heat my house.”

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