Good morning. It's Isabella, back with your weekly Survival Guide.
As it gets colder and darker, more of us are starting to worry about paying our energy bills. This week, we meet a disabled nurse and mother who says she has palpitations thinking about winter approaching in the cost of living crisis.
There are places you can go to get help if you are concerned about how you are going to cope. Read to the end of this newsletter for our round-up of all the support you can get from the government, charities and your energy supplier.
Throughout all of the hard times, we know there are incredible people and organisations who are making the world a better place. We want to celebrate them and we need your help. Find out how by reading on…
Laura Smith has sleepless nights thinking about how her family is going to cope with the rising cost of living this winter.
“It feels like the world is against you,” the disabled nurse and mother of two says. “Even when you are working and doing a good job with your children and being upstanding good citizens and contributing, it never feels like enough.”
Smith, who has multiple sclerosis, is one of many disabled people across the country facing desperation in the cost of living crisis. One in two have said that they plan on visiting a warm space this winter because they cannot afford to put on the heating.
“Being disabled, sometimes you feel like you’re better off not around,” Smith says. “It is so expensive to keep yourself well. It makes you feel guilty for being alive, and you should never feel like that. I would never want any of my patients to feel like that, but I’m just talking from my perspective.
“When you have disabilities or impairments, there is a cost – whether that is charging your scooter battery or the medications that you have to pay for. I just feel like a burden on society even though I work.”
Get help if you need it. Call Samaritans for free on 116 123, email jo@samaritans.org or visit samaritans.org for useful resources and advice on coping.
In case you missed it
Food banks are helping hundreds of thousands of UK children to survive. New research from the Trussell Trust has revealed that food banks are handing out more emergency food parcels than ever before. Read the latest.
Brits going without heating this winter as fuel poverty skyrockets. People describe the cold reality of not being able to afford heating. Here’s the story.
Neighbours band together to tackle energy bills. The race is on to fix the UK’s old, leaky homes. This community in Birmingham is working together to make over 1,000 homes more energy efficient and it will come at no cost to them. Read about it.
Migrants may be forced into destitution visa renewal fees hiked. Migrants now have to cough up more than £3,000 every 30 months. This is the latest.
Refugee family evicted into homelessness has lost ‘all sense of safety’. A new Big Issue investigation has revealed at least 6,900 people will be evicted from asylum accommodation by the end of the year. Read it here.
Suella Braverman told tent crackdown will see people ‘dying on the streets’. The home secretary has been warned she must rethink plans to criminalise the use of tents. Get the story.
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Do you know someone making the world a better place?
We need your help! Changemakers is The Big Issue’s annual celebration of the people, organisations and businesses who make life better for everyone. We celebrate those agitators, activists and non-stop grassroots campaigners who are in the vanguard of change.
In the past, a Big Issue panel has chosen the top 100, across diverse areas including housing and homelessness, cost of living crisis, environment, culture, health and wellbeing, education, employment and equality and refugees and asylum.
For 2024, we are doing things differently. The Big Issue is asking readers and supporters to choose this year’s changemakers. These could be local heroes in your community, or people and organisations responsible for innovative change. We want to hear of those we need to showcase and select as our 100 for the year ahead.
Are you doing positive work to tackle poverty in the cost of living crisis? Do you know someone who should be celebrated? Let me know at isabella.mcrae@bigissue.com
Saving those coins
Many of us – like Laura – are worrying about energy bills this winter. The Big Issue is here to help, with our guide to getting support if you can’t afford to pay for heating or electricity over the coldest and darkest months.
There are government payments for the poorest families and pensioners, schemes from energy suppliers to help households meet their payments, as well as charitable grants. And there are warm spaces across the country where people can get out of the cold.
