A terminally ill woman with just months to live has been left so poor by the cost-of-living crisis that she can no longer afford to survive.
Margaret Burns was diagnosed with lung cancer 18 months ago and fears she will not survive the winter – despite the energy price cap announced last week.
The 60-year-old said: “I’m trying to budget every day to work out what I’m going to need and how I can make things stretch. I don’t know if I will be here this winter but, if I am, I don’t know how I’ll cope.”
Margaret is one of two million Scots who have seen their incomes fall in the last month – before the Government’s latest intervention on energy bills.
According to a Citizens Advice Scotland (CAS) poll, nearly half of the country (45 per cent) has noticed a decrease in their household earnings since July, with experts warning of a “legacy of debt and poverty” being left in the wake of the current financial crisis.
Margaret, from Govan in Glasgow, said: “My electricity and gas bills have gone up from about £60 a month to almost £150. I’ve got hospital and hospice appointments, can barely afford to get to them and I can’t afford to eat properly.
“Right now I’m on steroids and it’s making me eat like a horse but I really can’t afford the food.”
Margaret, who was a carer until her diagnosis, said she feels the cold much more now but has to ration her energy usage as she is so worried about not being able to afford the bills.
She said: “I’m really worried because of the heating, it’s really a big problem. I feel the cold all the time and I don’t want to die of hypothermia – I’ve got enough problems.
“I’m trying not to put mine on but sometimes I just have to. I’ll put it on for an hour, then turn it off.”
Margaret called on politicians to listen more to “people like us” who are at the sharp end of the cost-of-living crisis and added: “People in politics don’t have a bloody clue about what most people are going through, people like us.
“These energy companies as well, making so much money, while so many of us can’t afford to live. It’s disgusting and it boils right down to greed, that’s what it is.
“I can see six months down the line people being found dead because of hypothermia and malnutrition, people who are in worse places than me.
“I’ve been told I could have weeks or months to live but, if I get to winter, it is going to be hell.
“There’s people who are starving and don’t have any heat and they will die.” Along with the cost of energy and food rising, Margaret said: “I don’t drive and, because of Covid and my immune system, I’m afraid to take the bus or whatever.
“I’ve been getting taxis but it can cost £30 to get there and back – I just can’t afford that and there’s no support for travel to medical appointments really, even in my position.”
Margaret said the new price cap announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss last week would not help her as she was already trying to reduce the amount of energy she was using. Citizens Advice Scotland said almost two million Scots reported their financial situations getting worse in the last month, while 54 per cent of people expect to be poorer within a year.
Polling by YouGov was carried out in July, with 2833 people asked how they thought their finances would be affected in the next year.
While a quarter (26 per cent) said they thought they would not see any change, more than half said they expected their incomes to decrease, while 11 per cent said they thought they would be better off.
CAS financial health spokesman Myles Fitt said the organisation is running a new campaign to encourage those struggling to get in touch.
He said: “The cost-of-living crisis isn’t going away any time soon and people know it, with millions already feeling not so much a squeeze but being crushed by a brutal combination of soaring costs and flat or falling incomes.
“People are having to make impossible choices on spending and, frankly, it is set to get even worse – there’s a real risk here that the cost-of-living crisis is going to leave a lasting legacy of debt and poverty.”
He said 20 per cent of people who ask for help from Citizens Advice see a benefit financially and added: “One in five people in Scotland who seek CAB advice see some sort of financial gain and the average value of that gain is over £4400.
“At a time when every penny counts, we can make a huge difference.” Truss announced that she would freeze energy bills at an average cost of £2500 a year for two years and would save households £1000 on average.
The planned legislation will effectively replace the Ofgem energy price cap which was due to come in next month at around £3500. She told MPs: “This Government is moving immediately to introduce a new energy price guarantee that will give people certainty on energy bills – it will curb inflation and boost growth.
“This will save a typical household £1000 a year.
“It comes in addition to the £400 energy bills support scheme.
“This guarantee supersedes the Ofgem price cap and has been agreed with energy retailers.”
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