Humphris added that she felt for people she knew who had to use food banks, like the one she volunteers for.
“I am reasonably OK because I’ve got a teacher’s pension, so I am not destitute or anything,” she said.
“For people who are on a very fixed income, it literally is coming down to the point where it is fuel or food, which is awful because you’ve got to heat your home.”
According to Shropshire Council, about 15 per cent of households in its area rely on oil-fuelled central heating, which is between 16,000 and 21,000 properties.
But within the county there are large variations, with the South Shropshire constituency having one of the highest percentages of homes without mains gas across the UK, at 53%.
It has led to co-operatives forming to bulk buy heating oil at cheaper prices, including one set up by the charity Community Resource., external
Hanna Clarke, who is the fundraising lead at the charity, said people coming to them were struggling with rising prices.
“It is different to your electricty and your gas. You can’t necessarily put it on a direct debit and spread that cost out across the 12 months – you have to fill up your tank,” she said.
“To be able to do it, lots of the suppliers have minimum orders, so that is the one sort of key issue that we are having, that they just literally cannot afford that big increase in the cost per unit now.”
