Cost of living crisis left a Welshpool carer wearing two coats instead of putting heating on
A widower from Welshpool who cares for his disabled daughter says he has been forced to wear two coats to keep the heating off when she is at school.
Dylan Thomas relies on his carers allowance and is unable to get a job away from the home because he has sole responsibility for 15-year-old Kiera.
He says he is saving the Welsh government thousands of pounds a week by caring for her himself, rather than hiring carers.
“She has to be catheterised, hoisted, there’s epilepsy training, handling training.
"If my caring duties were taken over by a carer provided by the government I could be someone who becomes a member of society who puts my taxes into the pot but I can’t do that.
"If I wanted the government to pay someone for her care it would cost more than for me to do it so it’s a vicious circle.”
He says caring for his daughter is a joy but when bills rise he has little left to cut back on.
After his gas and electricity rose to £200 a month he was helped by the charity Action for Children during a house visit.
“A member of staff noticed I was wearing two coats and she asked why.
"My daughter wasn’t here, she was getting respite but because she wasn’t here I couldn’t afford to heat the house so I wore my two coats.”
The charity was able to give Mr Thomas £150 food vouchers. This freed up the money he needed for the gas and electricity.
Action for Children Director Brigitte Gater wants the UK Government to do more.
“We are looking for the UK Government to step up and offer some additional financial support to particularly families on low incomes and hopefully remove some of the barriers to work.
She added “It’s not just increasing benefits but also things like removing the 2 child benefit cap and increasing just by £15 a week on universal credit the element that is related to child benefit. That would be an enormous benefit to parents.
"Fifteen pounds a week would make a huge, huge difference”.
A UK Government spokesperson from the Department for Work and Pensions said: “There are 1.7 million fewer people in absolute poverty than in 2010, including 400,000 fewer children, but we know some families are struggling, which is why we are providing support worth around £3,700 per household on average, including raising benefits by over 10% this year and helping people with essentials through the Household Support Fund.
“We’re also investing £3.5 billion to help thousands into jobs and removing barriers to work for parents with the biggest ever expansion of free childcare – saving eligible families up to £6,500 a year.”
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