Civil servant Julie Prince says her friends refuse to visit her freezing home
A woman who can’t afford heating has revealed that friends have started declining invitations to visit due to the chilly conditions in her home. Julie Prince, a civil servant earning £27,000 per year, says she is struggling financially.
With her mortgage and bills consuming 80 per cent of her monthly income, the 52-year-old admits she barely has enough left to get by. She can only afford to do her food shopping once every five weeks, and turning up the heating is strictly off-limits.
Julie, from Somerset, reveals that the temperature in her house has dropped so low that friends have stopped visiting. She shared: “A friend was going to visit me tonight but declined when he realised I wouldn’t have my heating on.”
She explained that if she were to switch on the heating, her monthly energy bill would double – an expense she simply cannot shoulder.
“My mortgage and bills are 80% of my earnings. I’ve already cut expenses elsewhere, and I still can’t afford it”, she confessed. “I don’t really know if there’s anything else that I could cut out,” reports Somerset Live.
“I’ve pretty much never put the heating on, even if it’s been snowing, I just can’t afford it. The only time I had to was last year when my brother warned me that my pipes might freeze, so I briefly turned it on and off again. My friends and family are worried about me, but there’s not much they can do.”
Julie is often found bundled up in three or four layers of jumpers, her hands clad in fingerless gloves to allow her to type while working from home. She confessed: “I’ve tried hot water bottles, but they just go cold too quickly, and I can’t afford an electric blanket, or anything like that.”
READ MORE: Woman flies to Berlin for the day for just £100 – and was back in time for bedREAD MORE: New Santander figures show one in five first-time buyers over 40
This year, Julie is appealing to friends and family for thermal clothing as Christmas gifts to help her combat the biting cold. Last year, her boss, worried about her situation, gifted her a terracotta flowerpot with tealights underneath.
However, Julie admitted that this gesture, though kind, did little to alleviate her chill. She finds the winter months particularly bleak, as she not only struggles to afford heating but also lacks the funds to venture out, leaving her confined within her cold home.
Without a car and stranded in the countryside without public transport, Julie relies on her mother to take her grocery shopping – a trip made once every five weeks. She said: “If I just have scraps in and nothing else, I’ll go after four weeks.”
Despite being on a full-time salary and having a mortgage, Julie is ineligible for benefits such as Universal Credit, which could assist her in affording heating.
“If I owned my house outright, I would be eligible for it, and if I was renting, I would be eligible for it, but because I have a mortgage, I’m not eligible, and that’s ridiculous,” she said.
