A MAN has told how he is relieved that his wife is spending Christmas in hospital – because it will save him on spiralling bills.
Cash-strapped Keith Butler, from Redditch in Worcestershire, lives off Universal Credit and pension payments.
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Keith’s wife Helen, 64, is set to receive special care in hospital due to an operation for a few weeks on December.
He believes spending Christmas at the ward will relieve some financial pressure on the household.
He told the Daily Star: “Helen is going into hospital on December 19 for an operation. I don’t want to seem callous, but she will be in for weeks and that will save us money over the most expensive time of the year.”
“Geordie and I will spend the whole period by ourselves for the first time ever.”
The 72-year-old struggles to make ends meet as he has to look after his adopted son Georgie.
The loving dad adopted Geordie when he was only 1 year old.
Keith and Helen fostered him as he had never been out of hospital and gave him a heartwarming Christmas at home.
By the end of the festive period, Keith “found his purpose in life” and decided to adopt him.
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He then took early retirement from his engineering career, aged 51, to care for him.
But caring for his 22-year-old – who has CHARGE syndrome, is deaf, blind and autistic – is an added cost to his already tight budget.
The family relies on the income made up of Keith’s pension and Geordie’s Universal Credit – which is increasingly limited.
Keith struggles to pay off energybillswith additional use related to Geordie’s needs – including his feeding pump and electric bed to help him lie down.
He also pays £2,250 in transport costs for his son to get him to day services at Sense Touchbase Pears in Birmingham.
With thebillscosts spiking, he is now cutting back on Christmas gifts.
He added: “We have scaled back everything we can, except for Geordie who doesn’t understand Santa has a budget.”
Keith is now urging the government to help families like his and to introduce a social energy tariff to help households struggling to pay their energy bills.
Thousands of struggling families like Keith are set to receive £125 in extra cost-of-living payments within days.
The support comes through the Household Support Fund, which is worth £842million.
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You’ll usually need to be on a low income to receive the help, but you don’t necessarily need to be claiming DWP benefits like Universal Credit to claim the cash.
What you can get depends on where you live and what eligibility requirements are set by your local authority.
