Energy prices: Dorset's most vulnerable hit by rising costs

Dorset charities providing round the clock care for people with disabilities or long-term illnesses are having to deal with the harsh reality of rising energy costs - with the people using their services struggling too.

Poole-based charity Diverse Abilities supports children and adults with profound physical and learning disabilities, and their families, in Dorset. Their CEO, Mark Powell, said: “We have felt the rising energy costs most within our specialist school; when the supplier went bust, we faced an immediate annual increase of 400 per cent.

“While we have successfully shopped around and found a supplier with an increase of only 100 per cent, this is still an £18,000 increase to our running costs each year for the school."

With the energy price cap raised at the start of this month, and energy firms now able to increase bills by 54 per cent, costs are set to soar even more.

Mark added: “As a charity that relies heavily on fundraising this adds even more pressure to cover the costs required to, literally, turn the lights on each day.”

Read more: How does the energy price cap work?

Read more: Biggest jump in domestic energy bills in living memory comes into effect

One service provided by Diverse Abilities is the Supporting Living Service, which provides a bungalow and round the clock care to adults with physical disabilities, allowing them to live as independently as possible.

Matthew Hale, a 38-year-old using the service, relies on a hoist and a pressure bed running 24 hours a day. He is supported by the government benefits system, but it is his mother, Stephanie Hale, who manages his finances.

After seeing a significant increase to her son’s bills as a result of rising energy costs, Stephanie reached out to the council for support and after two months, was provided with some additional funds.

Stephanie said: “They’ve just given Matthew an extra bit of money but we’re talking eight pounds a month."

Although Stephanie remains grateful to the council, she argues that granting additional funds for people in need should be an automatic process. She said: “Unfortunately, a lot of disabled people haven’t got family around them.

“The council know about all these people, and they know what they’re living on, but if you haven’t got anybody to fight your corner, then it doesn’t happen automatically.

“Unfortunately, disabled people are at the bottom of the pile because they can’t shout loud enough for themselves.”

Stephanie and Matthew aren’t the only ones in Dorset facing difficulty as a result of the rising energy costs.

8-year-old Elisa from Bournemouth has cerebral palsy and is supported by Julia's House, a children's hospice in Dorset.

She relies on medical equipment to maintain her quality of life and keep her healthy, including oxygen concentrators, a SATS machine to monitor her heart rate and oxygen levels, a BiPAP ventilator to combat sleep apnoea, ceiling hoists and a hospital bed.

Her father, Dan McEvoy, expects the family's yearly bills to almost double. He said: “Everything she depends on depends on electricity.

“Families will be asked to choose between food and heating. We will sacrifice both of those for our daughter’s health.

“We will be pushed further into poverty.”

The family are unable to work as they are required to spend prolonged periods of time in hospital, and so rely on government support, but Dan has argued that his benefits are not increasing in line with his energy bills.

“There is no financial support for homes that have medical equipment.

“For families of disabled children this will be a perfect storm that will see some of the most vulnerable children suffer.

“For us as parents, the wish to protect our children, keep them safe and healthy will become almost impossible.”

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood said: "This is the biggest squeeze on households for a generation which will affect everybody, and for these cases, it will have a fundamental impact.

"The government has done well to mitigate support with council tax, water bills and fuel but then there are some vulnerable members of our society that need additional help and support.

"I would hope that the government is very quick to recognise those who require medical equipment and additional grants are brought forward to support them."