Dec 2023 Update: No heating still and it is now -2c outside and 2c INSIDE. I am freezing cold and my fingers and toes are reddish purple. I don't want to die or lose my fingers and toes. Please help if you can or share my post. I really need help!

Please share this if you can as someone might be able to help that you know. Please help. I have had this crowdfund page open a long time but I am in bed so much and am so ill that I can't post it all the time and most people don't want to help me. If you can share, you might have friends that can help.

My name is Heather and I am a chronically ill and disabled lady from England who lives on a poverty income of just over £350 a month total income and is unable to work at all.

I have to enter a goal amount, so I made the target a years energy bill cost. Of course I don't expect to hit this, but if I could get a months heating here and there and enough for more food, that would be great and help so much!

I would love just enough money so I can have the heating on and enough food. It is as simple as that, but living on just over £350 a month, doesn't allow for either. I have no heating ever without extra help and live on minimal food.

I even had a £40 grocery gift card stolen from me which was for food but some thief stole it and ASDA won't refund it.

I cannot afford to have central heating on whatsoever due to the cost, even in extremely low temps even though I am home every day and don't go out to work as I am unable to work.

I am trying to raise money so I can survive in a country that won't give me anymore money than what I get which is not enough for anyone to live on, let alone a disabled person unable to work who NEEDS money to get by.

I can't get to any of the "warm spaces" due to my location and dreadful, unreliable once an hour bus.

This country thinks that just over £350 a month is enough for me to live on which is ridiculous! I can't afford rent anywhere let alone bills etc! I am lucky I live here as when I leave, I will be homeless on the streets as a disabled lady on multiple opioids. We all know how that goes! (people steal the opioids for drugs on the street)

I can't afford the heating on nor the heaters on for more than a 5-10 mins a day as it is just too expensive so I never have heat.

I have crowdfunded on here before, but I was told by a few people on Twitter, that I should have a crowdfund page that is open all the time that people can donate to. So this is why I am here today. This crowdfund will remain open so that people can donate if and as they wish to.

Money from this will PURELY go on living essentials such as food and heat and that is it! Nothing else.

You can donate as a one off or monthly!

Energy Debt Due To The Cost Of Energy

To make it even worse, already over £720 in debt for energy due to the fact energy has been really high the last year now. The last 3 increases were big and even without having the heating on for most of the time, still over £720 in debt.

They were supposed to cap energy costs for 2 years, but the latest chancellor changed that so it ends in April 2022, when energy prices go up again!!

So, being so much in debt already due to energy prices, there is no way I can afford to have ANY heating on without help.

UPDATE: I AM NOW OVER £860 IN ENERGY DEBT! PLEASE HELP

About Me, My Lack Income And This House

I cannot work, and that includes working from home, even part time jobs, due to severity of my conditions. I can't talk for long, type for long and if I do, I am bedbound for a day to a few days, depending on how much I pushed it.

I get my money from PIP alone as I cannot get ESA or UC. So I live on a little over £350 a month TOTAL INCOME! That is called poverty.

I live in a stone terraced house which has 2 foot thick solid stone walls which aren't insulated, and the house is cold 24/7, 365 days a year. Even in summer, it is cold! The cold is caused by the stone which is terrible for keeping heat in,

PLUS I have severe damp and mould from a broken gutter which has been broken 2 or 3 years now, and with a cost of over £700 for it replacing due to this house being a listed building which means you can only replace with certain materials, and after getting around 9 quotes, all around the same amount of £700, there is no way I could EVER afford to replace it. So that makes damp and mould, plus lets water inside via the windows as the water pours down the wall when it rains and comes inside.

I even have flooding from the road every time it rains too so that too adds to damp and mould. So many things that all make the living conditions worse.

As I can't afford the central heating, I have 2 little electric heaters, one in bed and one downstairs. I can only boost them for about 5-10 mins, once or twice a day due to the cost.

I would love to get some energy monitor plugs so I can actually turn the heater off when they hit a specific amount, but I can't afford them. (I do have some on my Amazon wish list if anyone wanted to help)

Info as to why I can't get ESA or UC

I can't get ESA due to national insurance credits because instead of quitting work when my chronic illnesses worsened, I worked part time instead. That means I didn't pay enough National Insurance contributions so I can't get ESA for a few YEARS!

Ironically if I had just quit working and signed up for ESA, I would be getting ESA! But as I genuinely thought that I would save the government some money as I could push myself to work part time, that punished me so I can't get ESA for years to come. Absolutely ridiculous, but that is England for you!

I still had to sign up for ESA just to get National Insurance credits so I can qualify for a pension at retirement age. I had to go through the exact same process as someone getting the money from ESA. I speak to an assessor, fill out the thick book of forms AND I even am in the support group, which is the group that is the most disabled and means you don't need to find work (as I can't work). So I did all that BUT I can't get the money from ESA for a few more years!

To make it worse, as I signed up for ESA midway through a year, that whole year is void and doesn't count! I could have paid money to get the extra 6 months so that it would count as a whole year, but to do that, you need to pay HUNDREDS of pounds which of course I do not have! So I have to wait more YEARS until I get ESA!

I can't get UC as I can't afford to rent anywhere so I share a house. As I can't afford rent, I have no landlord so they take their income into account unless you can prove you are renting by showing a contract, which of course I don't have.

My Chronic Illnesses

I have severe chronic pain and chronic fatigue as well as numerous other conditions such as sciatica, with these 2 being the worst that leave me disabled, unable to work, walk more than a few feet and even affects how much I can speak or type due to the severity.

I am in extreme pain that means I have to use the strongest painkiller available, Fentanyl plus Morphine and tons of other medications.

I have 10 out of 10 pain which leaves me bedbound. The Fentanyl and morphine help me not be bedbound so I can come downstairs too. I still can't walk more than a few feet without extreme pain and even just standing is extremely painful and hard. I will be bedbound again when the withdrawals worsen again which is terrifying!

There is no other painkillers or treatments for my pain on the NHS. I am on medication they usually only give people dying of cancer in hospital! There is medical cannabis which is medically legal BUT it costs too much and the NHS won't give me that, only opioids which is bonkers!

The cannabis would cost £150 a month (cheap trial price), then £45 for prescription and £65 every 3 months to see a doctor for 2 mins which is required by the home office as this country is so backwards and prefer to take the backhanded money they get from big pharma than let people have a painkiller with no side effects, impossible to kill you and none addictive!

I have severe withdrawals every 2 days (around every 36 hours it starts) as the patches run out a whole day earlier than they should. They will eventually not work at all for me and I will be bedbound again when that happens. That is terrifying for me as I wanted to die back then as it is unbearable!

I do have lots of information on my blog and have a about me page and a FAQ page with the most asked questions.

It is hard for me to type it all out, but if you check it out, it is very detailed and answers pretty much every question you might have.

Support Me

If you would like to help for free or in many other ways, you can by checking out my support me page, which has ways to help totally free or other paid ways to help.

NOTHING is ever expected! Only help if you can afford to and after you have taken care of yourself and your family.

You can donate as a one off or monthly!

If you can help, thank you a million times over!

Remember that the money from this will only go on essential living costs such as food and heating. Nothing else!

IF YOU CAN'T HELP, PLEASE SHARE AS SOMEONE MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP ME!