It’s not cheap being disabled
As I sit here and watch the news about the increasing prices of fuel and hear the latest comments by people in the know who say people who’s fuel costs that equate to 10% or more of their disposable income are considered to be in fuel poverty. Well guess what folks I realise I am one of those 10%, I didn’t choose to be in poverty! Unfortunately I do claim benefits not because I want to but because I have to.
As I mentioned in my previous blog Hubby is responsible for 127.5 hours of my care and gets £69.70 each week. However with that comes a caveat of not earning more than £132.00 a week. I claim Disability Living Allowance which is not means tested and is there to assist with the additional cost incurred when living with a disability. It is also broken down into two parts one being the care component and the other is the mobility. The care component is £92.40 per week and the mobility component is £64.50 per week. I also claim EESA which I get paid fortnightly and is £235.20 and I am part of the support group because of the level of my disability.
Let’s deal with the mobility side of my DLA, the money for this I choose to have a Motability car, which means I get to lease a vehicle through the scheme and the mobility component is paid by DWP directly to Motability. My last relapse at the end of 2017 meant I had to start using an electric wheelchair, all of a sudden the Motability vehicle I had was not really practical. I could not see out of the front windscreen I looked straight at the parcel shelf. When I went to the Motability road show and spoke to the charity they said to me I should be in a taller vehicle and that’s when we started the process of road testing new vehicles. In February 2020 I took delivery of my current vehicle a Ford Independence and for the first time when hubby drove the vehicle I could see the big wide world. Having a larger vehicle means a bigger engine.
Three weeks ago we filled the fuel tank up with diesel at a pay at the pump and to our horror the gauge had to stop before it was completely filled due to the cost reaching £100.
We have certainly found a couple of apps and one website that helps by letting you know where to find the cheapest petrol/diesel.
There is:
Petrol prices – this does not list every single garage an awful lot of the supermarkets are not included.
Fuel genie – this seems to list just the
supermarkets but not Asda.
Arval.co.uk – this does not have an app but if you use the website all petrol stations with the exception of Morrisons appear to be listed. I would question how up to date it is as today the 1st June it only lists May prices.
Then of course there is the real demon in all of this – the gas and electricity prices. Find me a person who isn’t struggling, you don’t have to be disabled to find it tough. It probably sounds like I’m really whinging but it’s all of the little additional costs that turn into a big one. Unfortunately there are appliances I can’t take off standby and have to have on all the time. My electric bed and pressure mattress plus my hoist are just a few examples.I even found myself having to chase wheelchair services about replacement batteries as my five year old batteries now need charging every day and that has to be done at night. Thankfully it is summer and we live in a south facing flat which has meant our heating costs are minimal especially as my care wasn’t sorted out until this week I have not had a shower for 15 weeks once again saving money on turning the boiler on, every cloud has a silver lining!
Food, I consider ourselves fortunate because when prices started climbing was at the time when I decided I needed to lose weight. Hubby has also decided to join me on my soup diet. The soups we cook are primarily vegetarian with one exception of chicken and mushroom. All soups are cooked from scratch and with fresh ingredients. Despite all the price increases in food our food bill compared to this time last year has gone down by approximately £100. I am so relieved as now I can put that saving towards my fuel costs.
It was very reassuring to hear the government announcement last week that come the winter each household in council tax bands A to D would be given £400 off their fuel bill and for me personally I will get a further £150 due to me claiming DLA. I must point out that those that are claiming Universal Credit will be thankfully able to get further assistance. Martin Lewis from Money Saving Expert.com advises everybody to check the benefits they should be getting. The best websites to check are:
Turn2us
Policy in practice
Entitledto.co.uk
It certainly is worth checking out what is available to you as far as your council tax is concerned. When we had a special wet room built in our house because it was done to meet my needs in addition to our family bathroom my council tax banding was reduced by one band. Maybe if in band E you are able to reduce it to band D you will also qualify for £400 off your fuel bill!
I am sure I have not covered everything and maybe missing out on something that you guys may know about but I don’t. We are all here to help each other in these difficult times.
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