Waspi woman saws down neighbour’s fence to stay warm as fuel costs soar. ‘Soul-destroying’ | Personal Finance | Finance
Maggie, 68, is one of millions of Britons who are struggling to fund the basics of everyday life, as inflation hits nine percent and energy bills rise by more than half. A high proportion of them are so-called “Waspi women”, who feel abandoned by the State Pension system.
Waspi stands for Women Against State Pension Injustice, a campaign group that is battling to win compensation after the Government hiked the State Pension for women from 60 to 65 in line with men, then increased it again to 66.
Maggie, who lives in rural Lincolnshire, was forced to work on despite serious health problems, and now battles for every penny. She has oil-fired central heating and the cost of filling up her tank has rocketed, like everything else at the moment.
“When the weather turned cold I thought I’d just fill up half the tank, which normally costs around £250. I was quoted £894. I just had to say no.”
She adds: “Having no hot water is totally soul destroying.”
Yet it’s an everyday reality for many in modern Britain due to the cost of living crisis.
Mum-of-two Maggie, who lives alone, suffers from osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease and a rare autoimmune disease called Bullous Mucous Pemphigoid.
Yet every Saturday morning she hauls herself out of bed to take the early shift cleaning tractors at a local agricultural depot. In return, she gets £127 a month.
“It’s the shift nobody else wants. It’s filthy work, which is demeaning, at my age. But I need the money.”
In April, her State Pension rose by just £9 a month, thanks to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to scrap the triple lock this year.
It now pays her £304 a month, or £3,648 a year, well below the maximum new State Pension of £9,627.
Maggie gets so much less because her ex-husband wrongly told her that she was paying the married woman’s stamp towards her entitlement, when she wasn’t. “He handled all the money. I just believed him. I only discovered the truth shortly before I retired.”
READ MORE: WASPI women urge compensation for state pension age changes
She gets Pension Credit of £160 on top of that, taking her total income to £591 a month, or £7,092 a year.
When a neighbour decided to replace their wooden fence, Maggie went over with a saw and turned it into wood for the fire. It was hard physical work but she battled on, despite her age and health problems.
It was the only heating she had.
Waspi woman have fought long and hard for fair treatment, arguing that they were not given sufficient warning of the State Pension age increase.
Last year, their campaign won the backing of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which said the Department for Work & Pensions should have given more notice of moves to raise the State Pension age, accusing it of “maladministration”.
Campaigners are now awaiting compensation for lost State Pension worth anything up to £50,000 each.
The DWP said the Government decided to equalise the State Pension age for men and women more than 25 years ago, as a move towards gender equality. It said the High Court and Court of Appeal found it acted lawfully.
Maggie says: “Millions of women are suffering in the name of gender equality. That’s just not right.”
Today’s rocketing prices are the last straw. “I have no future, no plans, no family that care and no hope. There’s nothing to smile about. I don’t live, I exist.”
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