{"id":17154,"date":"2022-12-09T08:46:51","date_gmt":"2022-12-09T08:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/?p=17154"},"modified":"2023-04-20T09:50:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T08:50:15","slug":"how-this-christmas-will-be-different-for-my-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/blog\/how-this-christmas-will-be-different-for-my-family\/","title":{"rendered":"How this Christmas will be different for my family"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Anna lives in Chesterfield with her three kids, Mac, George and Charlie. She explains how the cost of living is impacting her Christmas plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Charlie can\u2019t monitor his own temperature, so he gets cold easily and if he gets too cold, he could go hypothermic. My eldest, Charlie, was diagnosed with a genetic condition called SPG11 in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re so careful and have an electric heater to heat his room properly, but we can\u2019t always afford to heat the rest of the house. At first, my two other kids Mac and George didn\u2019t understand why the house was so cold, but Charlie\u2019s room was warm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just had to be honest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I told them that because of his illness, he needs to be warm. It\u2019s hard because of course I want to have the heating on full-time for all my kids. Especially when it\u2019s cold and dark outside, I just want them to be able to come home to a warm house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have a pre-pay meter. It\u2019s never bothered me because it\u2019s always been manageable but now, I put money on it and it\u2019s gone straight away. I\u2019ve done everything I can, like contacting power companies and being put on priority lists, but I can\u2019t plan for anything else. I just have to take it a day at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone is struggling, but a divide is being created. People don\u2019t understand how important benefits are to families like mine, yet we\u2019re being vilified. It\u2019s heart-breaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Christmas is coming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally I\u2019d be buying lots of little bits but this year it\u2019s one or two things each, and I\u2019m not doing presents for the adults in the family. It\u2019s not a massive deal for me but for the kids it is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My middle child has asked for pick and mix sweets this year, because he understands that things are different. We go through so much I just want to treat him and make things special for him, but I\u2019ll do that in other ways this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My mum and sister live nearby, so we\u2019ll get together as a family. At Christmas, regardless of presents, that\u2019s what\u2019s most important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n

We need more targeted support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to our research, over a third of families that care for a disabled family member say they won\u2019t buy Christmas presents this year because of the cost of living crisis. A fifth will cancel Christmas celebrations all together.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Disabled people face higher living and energy costs. More energy is used to run essential equipment, such as breathing machines and feeding pumps, whilst heating is vital for those who can\u2019t regulate their own body temperature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need more targeted support for disabled people now.<\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anna lives in Chesterfield with her three kids, Mac, George and Charlie. She explains how the cost of living is impacting her Christmas plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17159,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"display_author":[378],"class_list":["post-17154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","display_author-anna-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17154"},{"taxonomy":"display_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sense.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/display_author?post=17154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}