Wheelchair user Susan Power is still eking out the 200 litres of heating oil she bought in January.
“We almost never put the heating on – just an hour in the evening,” she says.
The social housing that she, her husband and their adult daughter share in Cashel, Co Tipperary, is “not well insulated”.
“Because I am not very mobile I feel the cold all the time. In the mornings the house is freezing. It’s shocking to be stuck in most of the time and it’s cold, but heating has become a luxury.”
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Power (46) stopped working in her administration job when her multiple sclerosis made it impossible. Her husband John, who worked in building maintenance, gave up work to care for her.
Their combined weekly income from her disability allowance and his carer’s allowance is €524. Their daughter, who is working part-time, is saving to move out. Their rent is €110 a week.
“We buy 200 litres of oil at time. That’s how we manage it,” says Susan. “That costs around €250. We will need to get more soon. I am too scared to inquire about the price, but I am guessing it will be about €400. The way things are looking at the moment we just don’t have that.
“The budget is very tight. I use a power-chair and that has to be charged a lot. Groceries, I swear every week they are getting more expensive. Then you are paying for your bins, your TV, the TV licence, your phone. There is no such thing as having a few bob aside at the end of the week.”
Neither she nor her husband drive. So, other than the deferral of a scheduled increase in carbon tax to October, nothing in the Government’s €505 million fuel support package will benefit them.
The package, following a week of disruptive protests and blockades earlier this month, saw the Government introduce temporary supports including cuts to excise duty on petrol, diesel and agricultural fuel, but not on home-heating oil, domestic gas or electricity.
Susan supported the fuel protests but their success was also “frustrating”.
She travelled to Dublin in February to protest against cuts of up to €1,400 a year to disabled people’s welfare entitlements and to call for a €400 emergency winter payment for disabled people and carers.
Organisers said the measure would cost €148 million. Their campaign has been unsuccessful.
“Government told us they couldn’t afford it. But then they could find half a billion euro for the farmers and lorry drivers. They pick and choose who to support and it’s whoever is causing the most bother. It is totally unfair,” she says.
The Irish Times has spoken to numerous people in recent days, many of them in household types known to be vulnerable to cost-of-living shocks – such as older people living alone, single parents, disabled people and those with long-term illnesses and struggling renters – but also to those in “good jobs” or double-income homes.
All say they are struggling more than ever. All feel “left behind” by the package of supports for agriculture, haulage and fisheries sectors. And all particularly feel the absence of energy credits and additional one-off payments that were available in recent years but absent from last October’s budget.
Patrick Hogan (69), who lives alone in south Dublin, is facing mandatory retirement from his job as a hospital pharmacy attendant at his next birthday, in July. He is “really scared” as he is “struggling” even with a salary.
“I live in a small one-bedroom cottage. I have Hap [housing assistance payment] and the rent I pay is €100 a week, so I am blessed in a way.
“But I am basically on the breadline. I never have the heating on. I have a small plug-in heater, a tiny fridge and a single ring to cook on. My immersion, I have on a timer for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. I do everything I can to stay ahead of the bills. I don’t drink, don’t smoke, barely go out. I watch every cent.”
He recently received a notice to quit his home, by July, as his landlord needs to move in. “It took me a year to find this place, three years ago. I am terrified I will end up homeless. I am so, so stressed.”
He runs a car, so benefited from the cut to duty on petrol but believes it will be “wiped out” quickly.
“I agreed with those protesters 100 per cent. The Government is not listening to people. There are people tonight, sitting in homes that are freezing and full of mould, and eating cat food, and the Government is brushing it aside.”
Sarah Oeser and her husband have “good jobs”. They live with two small children, in Bray, Co Wicklow. “We ran out of heating oil three weeks ago. We topped up with a smaller amount in the hope the prices would drop. We’ve just run out again. We can’t afford the current prices.
“We wear extra jumpers. We have big onesies, but trying to keep the house warm is a nightmare. We have electric heaters in the livingroom, the kitchen ... When I heard about fuel supports I assumed heating oil would be included, that prices would go down. When they didn’t, that was disappointing.”
The latest figures from the Commission for Regulation of Utilities show more than 320,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills and 180,000 in gas arrears. These, the highest rates recorded, do not include households unable to top up their prepay electricity meters or replenish home-heating oil.
Organisations advocating for vulnerable groups say the fuel package will have “minimal impact” on those they represent.
Sean Moynihan, chief executive of older people’s charity Alone, hopes the protests’ aftermath will “be the start of a wider conversation about energy poverty and the affordability crisis”.
Energy poverty is a “public health issue” for “hundreds of thousands of older and disabled people”, he says.
Both Karen Kiernan, chief executive of one-parent family charity One Family, and Joan Carthy, campaigns manager with the Irish Wheelchair Association, say restoration of the €400 emergency payment to those they represent is critical.
Many households have run up significant arrears through winter, with little hope of clearing them, which means they are facing next winter already in deficit, they say.
All say “growing” deprivation among vulnerable groups must be met with targeted payments, including further extension of the fuel allowance. That €38 weekly payment to 470,000 households, which was due to end this month, has been extended to May 1st.
The Government said the €505 million fuel package was additional to a previously allocated €250 million in “targeted supports to assist those experiencing real and immediate financial pressure”, bringing the new supports to €750 million.
A Government spokesman said there was a “range of protections in place for customers experiencing difficulties in paying their bills”.
Minister for Climate and Energy Darragh O’Brien had contacted the four main energy providers “to ensure that hardship funds and focused measures are in place for any customers in difficulties”, the spokesman said.
“For any person or family having genuine difficulty heating their home, additional-needs payments under the means-tested supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost.
“Any person who considers they may have an entitlement to an additional-needs payment is encouraged to contact their local community welfare service in the Department of Social Protection.
“In addition, under the SWA scheme, a special heating supplement may be paid to assist people in certain circumstances that have special heating needs (for example, in the case of ill health, infirmity or a medical condition).”
