'We're still cold paying £300 a month energy bills'

A pensioner says trying to keep warm and afford heating this winter will be "horrific" amid rising energy costs.

Pat Snell, from Redditch, Worcestershire, said she and her husband, John, who had a stroke, relied heavily on heating to keep him comfortable last winter.

"Even on a fixed-price tariff, our energy bills were £300 a month, and we were still cold," she said.

Snell raised concerns about further rises as millions of households in England, Scotland and Wales face higher energy bills from Thursday , when Ofgem's latest energy price cap increase comes into force. The regulator said typical households on standard variable tariffs will pay about £60 more a year, taking annual bills to £1,723.

The extra cost comes at a time when, Snell said, her household was already carefully managing energy use.

"We never even put the temperature up over 18C, and most of the rooms were closed.

"I don't even want to think about what it's going to cost in December, January and February."

Snell added that her fixed-rate tariff comes to an end in late October, meaning they could soon face higher costs.

Copyright for this text belongs to BBC.