Janet Reeder is one of the many women who felt they were “robbed” of their state pension at age 60 due to changes to the state pension age – which is now 66 for both men and women.
With no time to prepare, she explained how hard it has been to keep afloat as her income as a self-employed writer fluctuates.
The 62-year-old has a combi baller and is a customer with EDF. She pays around £254 each month by direct debits however it used to be around £120.
With the energy price cap set to rise in January, she is afraid they we will be paying more if they use the same energy as they used to.
Ms Reeder still worries whether she will be in a position to pay her direct debit bill each month.
From January 1, 2024, the price of energy for a typical household who uses gas and electricity and pays by Direct Debit will go up by £94. This will take the price cap from £1,834 to £1,928 per year.
Ms Reeder said: “If I, along with thousands of other women, hadn’t been robbed of our pension at 60 then the the situation would not be so worrying.
“As it is, you just can’t risk having the heating on all the time through the winter as we used to. Like many of my friends, we now switch it on for maybe an hour or so in the evening. Consequently, we don’t put the heating on unless it’s really cold. Mostly we will heat one room.
“We are also careful when cooking. We pile a load of things in the oven when we decide to use it, so that we’re maximising the use of energy. It’s all so boring!
“It just means you haven’t got much money and it’s just not comfortable sitting in the cold and getting patronising tips to put jumpers on.”
Ms Reeder explained the delay in the state pension has really affected her. She feels most employers want to recruit younger people for various reasons so her income has taken a dive.
If she had received her pension aged 60, she said she is sure she wouldn’t be agonising over heating bills the way she is now.
She continued: “Although with the government’s triple lock announcement, the current basic pension is insufficient to cover the current energy situation which is why I am now doing a course in digital marketing so I can continue to work after retirement age.”
According to new research commissioned by the Warm This Winter campaign, over three-quarters of women say they will be taking cost-cutting measures to beat the cold with nearly two-thirds wearing extra layers and over a quarter heating and lighting in just one room.
The energy bills crisis is now predicted to be so severe that a wide range of health, poverty, housing and environmental organisations and academics have written to Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt MP, to request the introduction of an Emergency Energy Tariff.
The Emergency Energy Tariff would use the existing Energy Price Guarantee mechanism to fix the unit costs and standing charges for vulnerable groups at a lower level.
Campaigners have suggested that this is fixed at the levels of energy bills in winter 2020/21, which would see eligible households’ monthly energy bills reduced by approximately £87 from current levels – a saving of around 46 percent.
Ms Reeder said: “I support the calls for an emergency energy tariff and I feel strongly that the country needs to take back control and invest in renewable energy.
“You hear about the bonuses being given to energy company shareholders and bosses and it makes me sick!
“For example National Grid’s John Pettigrew, one of the country’s highest-profile energy executives, took home £7.2m last financial year, up from £6.6million a year earlier, according to the FTSE 100 power networks company. Go figure.”
