Almost 30 million households across the UK will receive £400 through the Energy Bills Support Scheme to help with their energy bills over winter, but communities who live off the grid fear they may be forgotten about. Nottinghamshire travellers say they are facing a difficult winter due to the rising prices of gas and electricity, and they are not aware of any possible funding from the government to help with their costs.
Households across the UK will receive monthly instalments of £66 or £67 from October 2022 until March 2023, which will automatically be applied by their energy suppliers. However, people that don't live in houses, such as on boats or in caravans; those don't have a domestic energy supplier and instead buy their electricity and gas commercially or from private landlords.
One of the travellers at a Tolney Lane site in Newark, Linda Smith, 67, said: "Obviously on here we need to buy the gas cannisters even though I'm in a chalet, and one of those bottles of gas now is just under £100. Everything runs on the gas, they last me about 10 days."
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Linda explained that over the last year the price of gas has "doubled." She said: "One of those little bottles is £50 and the big ones used to be £50. They won't even last 10 days in the winter days, that will last about a week.
"I'm no different to anyone else, I know everyone has the same situation. We've got to bite the bullet and get on with it."
Linda explained that if she did receive energy support from the government like other households, she would "be over the moon." She said: "What ever I can get I'm grateful for and what ever I can't get I don't get."
Linda added: "You can't get anyone down here when you mention the address. I can't put it into words, but It's how we are thought about.
"When there have been bad things happen we are all classed together and we are put in the same boat. You get stamped with it. That's how it goes and you learn to live with it."
Elen Bower, 58, is also feeling the pinch of rising prices, and is concerned about the colder months ahead. When asked about how a grant from the government would help, she said: "it would be very helpful to be honest with you, anything at all would be really helpful as everything is so expensive now.
"Like everybody we are now having to cut back on food and stuff." Elen lives close to her parents, and says "With them being older they feel the cold more, I know we are not the only people but it's so worrying. It's costing £30 extra a week for their weekly shop and they're not getting what they used to, it's unbelievable.
"I feel so sorry for people that have little kids. I want to pick up little treats which you can't do anymore, but if you haven't got the money then you can't do it."
Elen added: "Their payments doesn't go up and my money is not going up, but everything else is. I just try and think positive."
Due to the rising costs of energy, Elen now does the cooking for herself and her parents in one caravan and tries to keep just one heated with them all in to cut back on costs. She described the situation as being "a constant worry" and that even not having the gas on all of the time, a cannister would only last them a week.
Sheila Lee, 62, has lived on the site for more than 20 years and feels the community can be forgotten about, and because of this it's difficult to know what help is out there. She said: "I don't know what I'm entitled to. "I find it very cold, it's hard to put the gas on."
Rebekah Finney, 50, estimates that she spends around £125 a week on electricity and gas. "That (large gas cannister) is £85, and if you can't afford it you have to wait." Rebekah said that she hasn't heard anything about support for energy payments. Previously Newark and Sherwood Council did give her a £50 voucher to use towards energy costs, but the store she bought gas from was unable to accept it and her electricity is provided by a private landlord. So she couldn't use the voucher.
When told about the government funding for millions of households, Rebekah said: "It's because we are travelling people, we are always left last. We have a hard life compared to people that live in houses."
Emily Heeps, 36, also had difficulty using the vouchers being given by the council. She said: "because we have bottled gas we could not go to the shop and use them as they didn't work."
Emily said that if she received the £400 support "It would make a big difference." She also uses a gas bottle costing £85 each week, which last "about seven or eight days, especially this time of the year."
Speaking of the support being issued to other households, she said: "We don't get to hear about anything." She explained that monthly instalments like that would mean families "have extra money to buy food and stock the freezer."
A spokesperson for Newark and Sherwood District Council said: “This can be a confusing topic but unfortunately those living on the site cannot receive the energy support grants. While the homes use electric cards they do not have their own energy supply and are not named on an energy bill.
"These electric cards are brought from the landowner so those on the site do not get access to the grant. We are supporting the community to access household support fund when they are eligible, but there are lots of funds that they can’t access as they are not named on energy bills.
"We did however, support the families to receive energy cash back vouchers where they exchanged the voucher for £49 to help pay for energy. We are supporting the community in other ways to help them during the Cost of Living Crisis.
"As a council we are always looking for ways to support all of our communities, directing families to food banks and food clubs where they can receive £15 of food for just £3.50. The Council is committed to supporting all of its residents where it is able to.”
However, a government spokesperson has confirmed that households living off the grid, such as travellers, will receive equivalent support to other households but it is still working on a way to deliver this. They said: "Households not on standard gas or electricity contracts, will receive support equivalent to both the Energy Price Guarantee, which limits what households can be charged, and the Energy Bills Support Scheme, which provides a £400 rebate to bill payers.
“The Government is working at pace to determine the most practical way of delivering this support. Further details will be announced shortly and payments will be backdated to October.”
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