A County Durham woman has spoken about her difficulties with money during the cos-of-living crises in the already “deprived” North East.

Kat Paylor Bent, from Bowburn in Durham, is a wheelchair user struggling to fund the unfortunately expensive realities of being disabled.

Many disabled people across the country, and the North East, are finding similar issues due to the costs of running medical equipment, disability-friendly vehicles, and just simply keeping warm.

Ms Paylor-Bent suffered a spinal injury during surgery resulting in her needing a wheelchair for life.

This brings with it its own costs such as a wheelchair accessible vehicle, a hoist and electric bed.

She said: “The cost of living has impacted quite a bit because I have medical equipment that has to be turned on and is running.

“For example I use a hoist, I’ve got an electric bed, I’ve been connected to feeding machines, all of which need to be running and plugged in and cost a lot of electricity.

“Then along with that, because I’m a wheelchair user, I use a wheelchair accessible vehicle, which is like a van.

“So we haven’t got the option of downgrading the car or going less miles because we’re running a big van.

“So it has hit me quite hard.”

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Many other disabled people are facing rising costs just for keeping their medication at an adequate temperature.

Ms Paylor-Bent said: “The fact that we need to have our houses at a certain temperature, there’s things that we don’t have the option to turn off as well.

“We would rather turn our fridges off than turn off the equipment that actually keeps us alive.

Asked whether she feels disabled people are being disproportionately affected by the cost-of-living crisis, she said: “yes, massively.”

She added: “The majority of disabled people will already be on quite a low income.

“A lot struggle for work or for health reasons they can’t work, so they’re extremely reliant on whatever benefits they receive, so before we had a cost-of-living crisis  we were very much on the breadline and surviving.

“But now everything has gone up, we don’t have the wiggle room and we can’t just go out and get a second or third job to pay for the bills that are arriving.

She continued to stress that many disabled people are not eligible for certain benefits and help from the government due to certain technicalities.

She said: “For example, I’m not entitled to certain benefits because by husband has chosen to work full time, which then means we are panelised from any other help because he’s chosen to go to work and pay his taxes and have a job.

“So despite the fact that I tick all the boxes for needing help from the government, it precludes us from being able to benefit from any of that.

“He’s trying to do his best to not be another statistic, but by doing that it actually makes you worse off.

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“I know there’s a lot of people that are in the same situation where they would be eligible, but because they don’t tick one box, all of sudden that help isn’t there.”

Ms Paylor Bent said that many disabled people are simply struggling to keep warm with rising costs of gas and electric.

She said: “Fortunately at the moment, I’m not struggling to keep warm as I live in a smart house, but I’m aware of a lot of friends and relatives where they’re only warming one room.

“Or they’re only warming it when they’re in there, so gone are the days when your whole house is warm or you wake up to a warm house, it’s literally as and when needed.

“Because it’s so mild at the moment, they’re trying to push the boundaries even more and not put the heating on yet.”

Ms Paylor Bent is an ambassador for Purple Tuesday, a charity promoting awareness and developing understanding of solutions for better accessibility for disabled customers.

Speaking on how businesses can help, she said: “I feel that businesses should employ us and talk to us.

“There are so many disability consultants out there who are ready and able to support businesses to do better and who have got the lived experience of understanding what it is that’s missing.

“So employ us and help us to help you offer more to your disabled customers.

“There’s so many people disabled people in the North East and we already know we’re living in a deprived area so add disability into the mix and you’re already adding another layer of deprivation.

“But form the community’s point of view, we have a really strong disability community and we really support each other as much as we can.

“So there’s some great networks and support available, it’s just a shame that from an area that is probably one of the most deprived in the country is getting the least help and that the disabled people are getting an event smaller fraction from the small amount of help available.”

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