Plumber James Anderson received a call for help from a family in need but he didn’t expect this call out to cost him £170 after he paid for their food and heating bills.
Anderson, 52, was left crushed when he first realised he could see his breath in a family home and in a selfless act of kindness, he decided to pay for their food and gas bills out of his own pocket.
His money provided the family with food, gas, and electricity seeing them through to their next payday without going cold and hungry.
Reminiscing on the call out, he said how the two children thought they were ‘going to die’ due to the freezing temperatures while their mom sobbed and dad looked on helplessly.
Anderson works for a company called Depher who provide emergency services to the elderly and disabled. When he first stepped foot in the door he realised the families woes were far worse than he imagined as he cast his eyes upon the ‘actual poverty’ they were living in.
The selfless tradesman said similar scenes are more than likely going to pop up due to the skyrocketing energy prices and called out for the government to act.
“Where do we draw the line as a society and say, ‘Now we need to act?’ There’s a lot of stuff the government can do to cut the cost of living by capping these companies that are charging stupid, extortionate, out of reality rates.”
“The poorest and the lowest in the country are always going to be penalised and expected to pay the most in the country out of everybody else.
“It’s wrong, and it’s time for a change.” he said.
Anderson received a call fro the family over the weekend asking if there was anything he could do to see them through until their next payday.
“They rang me to see whether there was anything we could do to help them get through until the next time they got paid.
“I said I’d pop in and see what I could do. But when I got there, I realised the actual poverty that they’re living in and the impact all this is having on people.
“You walk in and you’re talking to them, and you can see your breath while you’re talking to them.
“They’ve got children there. They’re confused because they don’t know what’s going on.
“The children are like: “Why is this happening? Why am I cold? Why can’t my mum and dad keep me warm? Why can’t they put the boiler on? Why can’t they give me a meal?”
James said that is shockingly isn’t the first time he’d been called out to a home where you can see your breath as families were saving money by turning off the heating.
“Over the last few weeks, I’ve been to a few houses, not just families but elderly and disabled people as well, and you can see a plume of air coming out of their mouth.
“It’s that cold you can see your words before you can bloody well hear them, and that should not be acceptable in this day and age.” he said.
He does believe that many parents in poverty are likely to turn to crime to pay for their families needs.
“There are two options – either go to a loan shark and then they get themselves in debt, and that will drive up the crime rate on that side.
“Or even worse, there’s going to be more crime with vans, schools, shops getting robbed.
“People are going to go out and take stuff that doesn’t belong to them to feed their child – that’s the next stage we’re going to see.” he said.
Would you have paid for this families bill like this generous plumber?
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