Home heating oil costs: Childminder facing ‘severe financial burden’

Alongside her six-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son, Jeffers minds one child after school hours and three children under school age all day.

She told BBC News NI the cost of her home heating oil had “doubled” since last year.

Last week, she purchased 500 litres of oil for £560. Jeffers said her tank was “not even near filled”, but the price is currently too high to fill it completely.

Jeffers said she had found herself turning off her heating sooner in the day than she usually would.

During the winter months, Jeffers said she had to run the heating all day to keep the house warm for the young children.

“Through the summer we were still using it because our hot water runs off our heating oil,” she said.

Jeffers has not yet had to increase her childminding fees, but it is something she has been “discussing”.

“The guilt is there also because whenever you start minding, the families nearly become an extension of your family, so you’re feeling for them.”

She said the cost of home heating was “always on the back of your mind”.

In terms of the knock-on impact the high costs are having on her own family, Jeffers said she has had to rethink whether to send her children to after school activities.

“They do piano, they do football, and you’re sitting and questioning is it worth going to these?

“And then that’s impacting on them and they’re out and they feel like they’re missing out because they’re seeing their friends still going to it, but you obviously then can’t afford to do everything,” she said.