Carmen Duncan has seen her energy bills double

A MOTHER’S energy bills have doubled as the winter months mean higher bills on top of already soaring expenses.

Carmen Duncan, who lives off the Caledonian Road, says that she has recently switched on her central heating because she needs to keep her seven-year-old daughter warm.

“I’m not looking forward to the bill, to be honest,” said Ms Duncan.

“I used to pay £40 for gas and electric, and now I’m paying over £100. It’s very difficult since I’m not working at the moment, I’m trying to look for a job. It’s difficult trying to juggle each individual bills – your rent, TV licence, council tax and everything”

A cheaper gas and electric bill would “massively impact” her day-to-day life, she says.

“I could put it towards other things – right now I’ve got credit card debt as well. It would help dramatically if I could reduce the cost of how much I’m using.”

Ms Duncan works hard to keep her other costs down. “My daughter is a fussy eater, so it can be difficult. I try to set a weekly budget and write a shopping list, instead of just going to the shop and picking out what I want. It’s very tricky in these difficult times.”

She says she has seen a “shocking” increase in the number of people using food banks.

“It really has gone up over the decades, and the food banks don’t really have enough supplies, because they’re not really getting the funding they need. People go away with not much,” she said.

“It’s a basic right to eat. If you can’t honour the basic right, it’s just very upsetting to be honest.”

Ms Duncan spoke to the Tribune from the Out of Debt conference at the London Resource Centre in Holloway Road. The conference, organised by Islington People’s Rights, saw a number of organisations in the borough come together to show people how and where help for debt and rising costs is available. Ms Duncan said she had “definitely” come away with helpful advice, and would be contacting Shine, “the energy doctor”.

“These are the times when we have to pull together as a community and support one another,” she said.

“There is a stigma around these things. It might be mental health, or people are embarrassed to say ‘I’m struggling’, but we all need help from time to time. If you’ve got masses of bills, you can’t ignore it, you have to deal with it. There are organisations you can contact, and there are people willing to help you if you just reach out.”

Mike Butler, who helps to run the resource centre, said that more and more people are getting into difficulties now that winter is approaching.

“What we find is that a lot of people who are living in poverty were on the bread line anyway, really just getting from week to week, so something like increased energy prices has just pushed them into a bad situation,” he said.

“People end up borrowing money, and getting themselves into debt. The more that that goes on, it can be really problematic.”

• If you are struggling financially visit www.ipradvice.org.uk/ for advice and help.