Scots single mum hit with £760 electricity bill forced to use candles to light home

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A single mother-of-two whose energy bill soared to £760 a month cannot afford to heat the home and uses candles for light. Struggling Nicola Elson, 32, says she has to fork out up to £760 a month for electricity at her two-bed flat in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland.She has lived in the property for the past year and spends the majority of her salary towards her electricity meter.She says she sits with candles on at night with the heating off in order to save the pennies - which means her two children often have to stay elsewhere.

Nicola said: "There have been times I have had to pick food or electric, or I have had to borrow off friends and family to get things I have ran out of, or even to put the electric on. "My children's grandparents have to pay for my children's shoes, coats, bags, lunches, sometimes clothes because everything I have goes on my meter."If I get something extra, I need to then struggle somewhere else, that being the meter, the internet bill, or not being able to watch TV for an hour in the morning before school."Nicola moved in in March 2021 and she claims, at first, she needed to put around £140 on her Pay As You Go meter every week to see her through.She rang up her provider, ScottishPower, to enquire as to why the price for her electricity was so high.She says she was told that it was due to her appliances, but she only had a fridge-freezer, TV, kettle and cooker at the time.Nicola also heats her house using electricity with plug-in storage heaters.She brought in an electrician who replaced her meter but this didn't make a difference, and it is affecting mum Nicola's relationship with her family.She said: "I have five children but three of them live with their father, they come to stay