Mom unable to heat milk for ‘disturbed’ baby after days of power cut

Laura, 29, from Stockport, said a technical error meant she couldn’t top up her prepaid meter with E.ON, meaning she couldn’t heat milk or formula for her baby

A mother has told how her daughter was “distraught” when gas and electricity were cut off in her home, meaning she couldn’t even heat milk for her baby.

Laura, 29, from Stockport, is struggling with the rising cost of living but was unable to top up her prepaid meter online with E.ON Next due to a technical error.

She criticized the company for “not helping” at the time, the problem has now been resolved and E.ON has since apologized, the reported Manchester evening news.

The mother-of-one, who lives in a house in Cheadle Hulme, said her 18-month-old daughter was “distraught” at the chaos as she was unable to heat bottles of milk or food.

Laura says she already has debt with E.ON and is very worried about the rising cost of topping up her energy. She worries she could get into more trouble if prices continue to rise.

“The problem started a few weeks ago when I ran out of power. When I wanted to top up, the website crashed and I couldn’t reach E.ON,” she said.

“I was on hold for more than an hour and a half and they managed to sort it out for about a week. Then last Friday (April 22) it happened again with the gas. This time when I spoke to someone they said that the system wasn’t working so no one knew how much I had to charge.

“By the time I realized it wasn’t coming it was after 4pm and I couldn’t get hold of anyone so I was out of gas all weekend which was an absolute nightmare.

“I have an 18 month old baby and she was just desperate. She couldn’t have her warm bottle or warm food because I had no way of heating anything. It was a nightmare. It’s very stressful when there’s a baby, they’re yelling at you and there’s nothing you can do.”

Laura is said to have a “breathing space” agreement with E.ON – which means she can pay off her debts to the company in small and affordable payments.

But the technical errors have forced her to top up at least £50 for electricity and £10 for gas in recent weeks just to even turn on the meter – something she can barely afford.

“I don’t know why this happened because I would never agree to pay this as I can’t afford it. I only get £400 a month,” she said.

As a final straw, the mother said she went to her local store and bought an energy voucher, which she says didn’t work either. Since then she has had to call E.ON for hours to solve the problem.

Laura says the issues have now been resolved and she has a staff member’s personal email address – in case she needs to contact someone again about an issue.

An E.ON spokesman told the Manchester Evening News: “We are sorry the customer was having trouble topping up her meters. We have now spoken to her to apologize for the inconvenience and to explain why this happened.”