A mother-to-be is washing her baby with baby wipes, as she cannot afford to take him to the bathroom.
Jess is now five months and pregnant. She said that she was left without gas for nine consecutive days because her provider cut it without warning.
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Soon-to-be mother-of-two found out she owed thousands to OVO, after the company cancelled her direct deposit.
According to her, she is now unable heat her house or cook warm meals for her son of three years.
Jess said HullLive: “I’m five months pregnant and have a three-year-old child
It cut off my hot water so that my child cannot take a bath.
“It’s cut off my heating, leaving us in a cold house, and it’s also cut off my gas cooker, meaning I’m unable to cook hot food.”
The single mother, who is currently on maternity leave said that she was being asked to fork out the lump sum – something she cannot afford.
Jess (20 years old) from Hull tried to call her energy company 45x in an attempt to resolve the issue.
After resolving the issue, a prepayment device was put in place.
She claims that large amounts of money were stolen every time she attempted to make money.
Jess said: “When I topped up at the beginning of the week, I put on £10 and they took £7 of that, leaving me with £3, which didn’t even last a night.”
The same happened again the next day, and she couldn’t help but call OVO Energy.
Customer service claimed that they would transfer her debt to the Back Screen. This is an option companies employ when trying to assist people in repaying their debts.
So in a last attempt to get heat for her and her kids, she put her remaining £36 on the meter and was only left with £10 on there.
According to Jess, the customer service team said they would then put £95 of credit on her meter and is something she could activate at her local shop.
After several hours of waiting, she claimed that no credit had been added to her account and that there was no gas.
The mother in desperate need repeated the cycle 4 times more before an engineer promised to visit.
Jess said, “[My son] likes to have a bath on a night time and go to bed, but he’s been having to get washed down with baby wipes and get in my bed so it’s not too cold for him.”
An engineer was eventually sent to Jess’s property where he wiped the debt and gave her £20 in emergency credit as part of a support package.
According to a spokesperson from the company, “We’re sorry to [Jess] and have provided advice on next steps and offered support via our Customer Support Package.”