Disabled woman 'washes less and wears dirty clothes' to try cut back on energy bills

The cost of living crisis is having tragic consequences for some of the UK's most vulnerable people.

Now, a disabled woman has admitted that she's been left with no option but to wash less and wear dirty clothes to cut back on her energy bills. Watch below:

Anne Vivian-Smith, 51, is a retired specialist youth worker and she explained that she and her partner have had no option but to cut back in any way they can in the face of rising inflation.

She told ITV News: "You look on the smart meter, which is my deadly enemy, and to shower, it shoots round into the red.

"And my husband is not disabled so he can shower in three or four minutes, but I have to shower with two people helping me.

"So, I don't shower so often so I sit with a dirty body and dirty clothes. I don't like that."

Anne says that she and other disabled people are the 'invisible victims' of the cost of living crisis, which she says the government has mismanaged.

Her opinion is backed up statistically too, and a new report from the Resolution Foundation noted that nearly half of all disabled people (41%) can't afford to heat their homes.

However, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the additional costs that can come with having a disability.

Despite her electric wheelchair helping her arms and shoulders, Anne said that she is now opting to use her manual one to save - even though this comes at the expense of her health.

She explained that when the weather got particularly cold in December, her husband said they would have to 'take the hit' when it came to the cost of heating or else risk her hospitalisation.

"My husband said 'look, we are just going to have to take the hit and deal with the energy company then' because if we leave it the way that we are you are going to end up in hospital.

"So, the heating got turned on for that time."

ITV News

Anne admitted that as her health has worsened over time, prompting her to take early retirement, she's required more equipment to make her daily life easier.

This includes an electric toilet, which costs 30p to flush a time, as well as electric hoist that helps her move between wheelchairs.

But now that she is having to sit in the cold too, she's admitted that it's taking its toll on her mental health.

She said that energy is so expensive that in one day alone, her bill went from £82 to £150, and it's now risen to over £300 but it appears to have levelled off.

Our income certainly has not increased threefold," she said,

"And you stack that with other bills, admittedly the energy costs is the biggest - bigger than the food bill, its bigger than our rent."