Childminder Rachel Jeffers faces rising heating oil costs in Northern Ireland

Rachel Jeffers, a childminder in Stewartstown, County Tyrone, says rising heating oil costs are putting pressure on both her business and her household budget. She told BBC News NI that she paid £560 for 500 litres last week and has discussed raising her childminding fees. A Consumer Council survey dated 24 September puts the Northern Ireland average for that quantity at £561.83.

Heating a home used for childcare

Jeffers looks after three children under school age during the day and one child after school, alongside her own six-year-old daughter and seven-year-old son. She said her heating oil costs had doubled since last year. The 500 litres she bought did not come close to filling her tank, she told the BBC, but she considered the price too high to buy enough to fill it.

She has begun switching the heating off earlier than she normally would. In winter, she said, it needs to run throughout the day to keep the home warm for the young children. Her household also uses heating oil for hot water, so the cost is relevant beyond the coldest months. Those details describe Jeffers’s circumstances; they do not measure costs across the childminding sector.

Jeffers has not yet increased her childminding fees. She said she had discussed that possibility, while recognising that higher charges would put pressure on parents as well. Describing the demands on registered childminders, she called the combination of oil, food and insurance costs a ‘severe financial and operational burden’. The BBC report provides her account of those pressures, rather than a survey of providers’ bills.

What the latest price survey shows

The Consumer Council for Northern Ireland’s price checker records an average of £346.51 for 300 litres, £561.83 for 500 litres and £996.51 for 900 litres on 24 September. The surveyed prices include 5% VAT. Jeffers’s £560 purchase was an individual transaction in the previous week, while the council’s £561.83 figure is a regional survey average on a specified date.

The council surveys suppliers each week and says its figures reflect prices at the time of the survey. Its checker does not include every town or supplier and does not forecast what households will pay later. It also provides a daily checker for people monitoring prices. The dated figures offer a benchmark for comparing quotes, with the limits of the survey kept in view.

Raymond Gormley, the council’s head of energy, told BBC News NI that 300 litres cost about £347 at the time of its report, compared with about £202 before the Iran war began. He said prices had eased slightly over the preceding week and linked their future direction to events in the Middle East. The cited amounts are approximate, and the report does not specify the date of the earlier price; the council’s checker makes no forecast.

Heating oil matters to a large share of the region’s households. BBC News NI reports that 62.5% of Northern Ireland homes use it for heating, citing the Consumer Council, and says this is the highest proportion among the UK nations. That reliance helps explain the reach of changing oil prices, although it does not establish that other households or childminders have experienced Jeffers’s particular increase.

Support available to eligible households

Northern Ireland’s Department for Communities says applications for its £100 Home Heating Oil Support Scheme opened on 9 September. The one-off digital prepaid card is intended for around 340,000 households using oil as their main heating source. Eligibility includes households receiving specified income-related or disability benefits, as well as single people and couples with annual household income below £30,000 after allowable deductions.

New applications are due to close on 31 March 2027. The department says some applicants may be asked for further information, while most applications are expected to be processed through an automated system. BBC News NI reported that the department had received 123,987 applications by midday on 23 September; that is a count for that date, not a tally for the day of this report.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the payment would not by itself remedy long-term fuel poverty. The department also directs households to the Consumer Council’s price checker and Housing Executive oil-buying clubs. For Jeffers, the immediate question remains whether higher heating costs will eventually require a change to her fees; she had not made one when she spoke to the BBC.

The latest account follows earlier coverage of rising heating oil prices. NewsJaws has also covered the wider price pressure in its article on how the Iran war has affected heating oil costs. The Consumer Council’s next surveys will show subsequent prices, while Jeffers’s reported £560 purchase and the 24 September regional average remain the dated measures available for this account.