Victoria S

Back in January I was forced to leave home due to emergency repair work and while they council promised to cover the costs for food while not at home, they took nearly two weeks to actually pay this, meaning I had to use bill money to cover food and transport costs while in temp accommodation that had no oven or freezer, just microwave, kettle and mini fridge, meaning food costs were higher than when at home (especially with my meds I cant safely live on pot noodles anymore). But that's had a knock on financial affect all of Feb, due to the missed bills and late fees for them. Luckily was only two bills (phone/data and gas/electric), but I've been without data most of Feb and have to use free WiFi in town when I can, which hasn't been often as I can get out often due to my disabilities. I'm lucky that my neighbours are happy to let me use their WiFi for essential zoom meetings but they have a data limit so I can't use it often and id feel bad if I did.

And I'm lucky. Because for me, it'll take about 3 months to add these additional charges into my budget before I can get back to my regular budget. But for many it could take 6-12 months to bounce back from relatively small financial setbacks like this, but when you're trapped on benefits you don't have wiggle room for emergency situations. It's so frustrating. But I'm supposed to just be grateful cos the council eventually paid me some money towards those emergency food costs, doesn't matter to them that I was left in debt due to how long they took to do so, and they don't cover those additional costs due to their delays.