A struggling single mum has no choice but to work two jobs in order to feed her son and keep a roof over their heads. Clare Ransom owns a cafe and works three days a week as a teaching assistant at a secondary school, but doesn't earn a penny from her business due to soaring energy bills amid the cost of living crisis.
She now faces losing her business due to being told by British Gas, her energy supplier, that she has seven days to pay a £995 energy bill, Derbyshire Live reports. Clare's electricity bill almost quadrupled in the space of a month when she changed supplier earlier this year, putting the café at risk of bankruptcy.
Things have got so desperate that Clare, 49, also has to apply for Universal Credit, which provides her with £624 a month, but £600 of this is immediately taken out to pay for the mortgage on her house where she lives with her eight-year-old son. As a result, the pair - who live by themselves - get food from a foodbank, with Clare now saying she is "out of tears".
