A mom who is allergic to the cold fears that the proposed utility bill increase will turn her life upside down.
Robin from South Her Shore,BlackpoolHer Harrison suffers from a rare condition known as severe idiopathic cold urticaria, which can cause rashes all over her body when the temperature plummets. I suffer from painful rashes and difficulty breathing.
Her mother of two, who has suffered from the disease for her five years, needs to keep her home above her 23 degrees to avoid contracting hives.
She and her partner Andrew Her Temple, 37, are already struggling to pay their £250 monthly fixed electricity bill. This has seen her climb from 80 pounds over the past three years.
But her contract is due to expire in March and the new tariffs are expected to double hers in the new year, costing Robyn and her family up to £500 a year. takes.
Robyn said: "We have the heat on at least eight months of the year.
" "It will cost as much as a mortgage after March."
"When winter comes, we're going to have to spend a lot more on gas because we can't walk anywhere in the cold without having an allergic reaction." When it gets cold, my whole body gets itchy and my eyes are so swollen that I can barely open them, so turning down the heating is not an option.
I don't know what to do."
Robin, a housekeeper on a Plymouth ward, said she first realized she had a chronic illness after the birth of her son Zachary in 2017.
At first, her mother thought it was due to hormones from her pregnancy, but she soon noticed symptoms of physical disability when she went to an air show on a windy day.
At that time, her eyes and cheeks were swollen.
She said: ``I started getting hives when I was in windy or cold places. After that, I had hives every time I stepped outside, and the water was cooling on my skin.
"Even if I spray deodorant on my armpits, my skin still tingles." It's itchy and doesn't hurt, but my whole body is itchy and I can't get rid of it.It's very stressful.
"I don't know what to do."
Robin Harrison
In particularly bad reactions, it can last several days.
"To sum it up, you can't cover it completely. Even if you can see only the eyes, or the small gap between the coat and the glove on the wrist, it will react."
46} Her mother said she was prescribed antibiotics to combat her symptoms but still experienced reactions on a regular basis. I bought an extra car so that I could survive, and installed automatic heating in my house whenever the temperature dropped below 23 degrees Celsius.But with monthly expenses expected to double hers soon, Robyn and partner Andrew fear the worst.
She said: "It's not just gas and electricity, it's a big concern for everything. We're coming to a stage where we're just managing.
have both. We are in a better position than some jobs but I'm worried about what we will do after March. I'm sure everyone else feels the same way
This is because many homes have been warned by experts that their utility bills could exceed £5,000next year. .
Regulator Ofgem has set a cap on energy prices of from next April to average
This is more than £2,500 higher than previous projections, which were already grim. 67} puts further pressure on households across the UK.