Mum torn between keeping disabled son healthy and other children fed amid cost of living crisis
Video report and words by ITV News Correspondent Sejal Karia
For 10-year-old Mikey Newlands, keeping the power on round the clock is literally a matter of life or death.
He has complex medical needs that requiring a lot of life-saving equipment that keep him alive.
From a ventilator to keep him breathing to a tube that feeds him - all of it needs to be kept plugged in 24 hours a day.
His mum, Chevonne Newlands, is his full-time carer and unable to work. So the family rely on her partner’s wage.
Right now, they are struggling. Their energy bills are skyrocketing, they cannot afford to pay them in full and are constantly in arrears.
Their electricity alone has increased from a £100 to a staggering £500 a month.
They are entitled to the government’s cost of living payment of £326, but it is simply not enough. It doesn’t even cover one month of their energy costs.
Chevonne told ITV News: "We need the electricity for my son but then if I don't buy the food, my other children will go without. Then obviously with winter coming, Mikey gets a lot of chest infections and pneumonia, so that's our biggest worry - being able to turn the heating on."
Times are also desperate for Mark Conlon, who is disabled, his wife Helen and their three children.
The cost of living payments, he said, only go so far when electricity bills are soaring. His electricity has gone from £72 in July to £228 in August. A 200% percent rise in just one month. This does not even account for other energy bills or food they have to pay for and it is not even winter yet.
"It's not enough," Mr Conlon said. "I need a little bit more."
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Also struggling is single mum of four, Stacey Williams who works part-time.
She welcomes the payments but told me it will cover a month or so of some bills but that is it.
"They think that giving us this small handout will help. But in the long run it won't - that's one pay-off, two pay-offs when you get your second one. But its not going to cover the rest of the year," she complained.
She still has to clothe her children, buy them school uniforms and, of course, feed them. She will go without, she said, but she will not let her children.
These are stark choices facing just three families I spoke to. But they represent millions struggling across the country.
The worst is not over, it is yet to come with energy prices only going one way. They welcome government support. They are grateful for it. But they tell me it is just not enough.