Woman 'scared to turn heating on' due to oil cost
Roslynn Garner-Gatley starts using a hot water bottle, bed socks and earlier bedtimes to stay warm.
Woman 'scared to turn heating on' due to oil cost
Roslynn Garner-Gatley says she relies entirely on oil for heating and hot water
A woman has said she is afraid to switch on her heating because the price of domestic oil has almost doubled.
Roslynn Garner-Gatley, 76, lives in a three-bedroom semi-detached cottage in Yealmpton, south Devon, where there is no gas supply, and depends completely on oil for heating and hot water.
She said her oil tank has a capacity of 1,000 litres (220 gallons). Around six months ago, she paid £317 plus VAT for 500 litres (110 gallons), but when she asked her supplier for a new quote, she was told the same amount would now cost £600 plus VAT.
Garner-Gatley said: "I did not expect at my age after working for 50 years to be in a situation where I am terrified of putting on the heating because of the price of it."
The cost of filling her heating oil tank has nearly doubled
Garner-Gatley said she had begun going to bed earlier to stay warm while watching television, and had recently started using a hot water bottle and bed socks as the evening temperature fell.
She said that rather than leaving hot water on a timer, she now only turns it on when she needs it for washing, cooking or bathing, before switching it off again.
She added that people in rural areas who rely on oil have "no choice" but to buy it.
She said: "After working all my life I didn't expect to be constantly worrying about how to keep warm at my age. It is really quite frightening."
Heating fuel costs have risen by up to 82% since the start of the US-Israeli war with Iran, according to Minster for Energy Consumers Polly Billington.
Earlier in October, the government promised better regulation of the sector.
Ministers said they would tighten rules, encourage competition and provide customers with clearer routes to compensation if things go wrong.
They also said minimum order levels set for some customers would be reviewed.
Cornwall Council and Devon County Council have funding available for households struggling with rising heating oil costs through their crisis resilience funds, which are supplied by the government.
Cornwall Council said it had made payments to 1,386 households of £300 to £1,386, with total spending of £415,800, and that this would double after a decision to award a further £300 to the same households.
The Devon fund, worth about £8.4m a year, is available through district councils and is aimed at low-income households facing an "essential cost they cannot afford".
Plymouth City Council and Torbay Council also have their own crisis resilience funds.