My daughter is disabled – I need help with energy bills, her care needs mean my bill will be £700 a month

A mum caring for her disabled daughter has appealed to the government for urgent help amid spiraling energy bills.

Carolynne Hunter’s daughter Freya, 12, has serious health issues, is non-verbal and blind and requires full-time oxygen and home nursing care.

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She needs equipment to help her stay alive, including a machine monitoring her oxygen and heart rate, while her bedroom and bathroom act as a ‘home intensive care micro-room’ .

They also have to boil kettles for NHS staff helping with Freya’s care, wash extra clothes, run medicinal baths and use an electric bed and hoist.

Carolynne, 49, lives in Tillicoultry and was paying around £280 a month to manage her home before the price cap rose.

The parent, who is now paying £400, which he has been told will rise to £700 in October, said: ‘Our families are going to suffer, there is going to be a mass crisis for the NHS and social services and the children will die if their families are unable to pay for it.

She called on the government to foot the bill for the unaffordable hikes ‘because it’s going to be cheaper than what the NHS and social care crisis is going to be’.

Meanwhile, a mum-of-12 has told how she fears her family will struggle to keep warm this winter due to soaring energy bills.

Zoe Sullivan, from Lossiemouth, Moray, said she had even given up hope of another Bank Holiday after watching her monthly house costs double amid the cost of living crisis.

The 44-year-old is married to RAF serviceman Ben, 47, who is finishing a 27-year career, meaning the Sullivan family will soon have to take out mortgages and leave military quarters.

The couple have two sets of twins, Charlotte and Isabelle, 14, and Leah and Erin, six, and buy branded shampoo for the girls’ long hair.

Eldest daughter Elisabeth, 17, has a job, but young children Olivia, 15, Noah, 12, Eva, 10, and Toby, 9, can’t wait for a Pepsi Max and a chocolate bar a Friday and a Saturday night as a treat, which Zoe doesn’t want them to give up.

Four-month-old Florence is given diapers of her own brand and five-year-old Agnes has a milk allergy that makes her difficult to eat and expensive to house.

The couple also have three-year-old Joseph and send six daughters to dance lessons, while their eldest son plays football – as well as a cat which costs around five pounds a week.

Zoe said their bills had doubled from £240 a month to £400 a month, despite not using central heating during the summer, and having two seven-seater cars, one of which One is used by Ben to go to work, while she uses the other for shopping.