Betty’s Story
Betty lives on her own in a property she owns and had been without heating and hot water for 3 years.
She has been diagnosed with multiple health conditions, and shared that she had suffered a breakdown last year due to the stress and worry she was under.
Betty had her original heat pump fitted in 2014 but encountered issues early on and she contacted her local council to see if they could fix it, but this only exacerbated the situation resulting in her being left with a large energy debt as the system had been left running for 2 weeks.
One of Utilita’s wonderful agents believed that this was an exceptional case and brought this to the attention of his superiors, Betty’s local MP, and her local council. Betty had received a quote to get the work completed which was thousands of pounds, which she was unable to afford so she had been trying to save her DLA money for the last 3 years to get this fixed.
We reached out to Betty to discuss the support we could provide through One Call, That’s All (OCTA). We explained that we would be able to assist her with the purchase of the heat pump and Utilita would carry out the fitting.
Betty was overwhelmed with the support she had already received from Utilita and was then being provided by OCTA. Knowing that she was going to be warm and be able to wash in hot water again brought her to tears. She also explained that she could now invite her brother over to stay. She was too embarrassed before as she could not heat the house or provide hot water.
Betty has described this as a “miracle”. The work they did was “marvellous” and having the heat and hot water back on is “life changing”. She no longer has to wear lots of layers and sheep skin slippers.