Linzi's story

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Through the Lightning Reach portal Linzi received support from:

Mounting energy debt: how Linzi found vital support

Sheffield, England

"It’s hard asking for help, but sometimes you’ve got no choice. This support has given me a bit of breathing space to figure things out."

We spoke with Linzi, who lives with Crohn’s disease, a condition that has left her unable to work. With the cost of living crisis worsening, she found herself drowning in energy debt. Her heating had to stay on to manage her condition, causing the debt to keep mounting.

"I’ve always needed my heating on, so over time, I ended up falling behind on my gas and electric bills at one point, I owed around two or three thousand pounds."

Her energy provider kept pushing for higher payments, but Linzi simply couldn’t afford it.

"They kept emailing me, saying I needed to increase my payments to £350 a month. But I just thought, ‘There’s no way I can afford that,’ but I needed to keep my heating on."

Losing her job due to illness made things even harder.

"I've always worked and always been stable, but being out of work, it's made life harder."

Finding vital support through Lightning Reach

Linzi sought support to help with her mounting energy debt. Through her support worker at Sheffield Young Carers, she was introduced to Lightning Reach, where she was able to explore financial assistance options.

With their help, she set up her profile and was matched to YES Energy Solutions, where she applied for their Support with Energy Bills scheme. Her situation was quickly assessed, and soon afterwards she was awarded a £360 grant to help with her energy debt. She was relieved when she received the news.

"They paid off £360. I wasn’t expecting anything like that. Just seeing the amount go down made a huge difference - it was such a relief."

The financial support gave Linzi some much-needed breathing room, easing some of the burden of her energy debt and ensuring she could keep her heating on, which was essential for managing her health.

"It meant I didn’t have to stress as much about my bills and could keep my heating on, which is really important for my health."

The impact: a weight lifted

With some of her debt cleared, Linzi felt a sense of relief. The support didn’t just help financially, the help she received has given her the space to focus on what comes next.

"It’s hard asking for help, but sometimes you’ve got no choice. This support has given me a bit of breathing space to figure things out."