Retirement and me: Pensioner calls for more support as cost of living bites | Personal Finance | Finance
Pensioners on a limited income are experiencing financial challenges given the cost of living crisis. Many have called for more support for older people, and have welcomed the cost of living payment due soon.
Express.co.uk spoke exclusively to Christine Sepahi, 70, from Coventry, who expressed her dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs for pensioners.
She said: “When I started work at 15, my mother told me I had to pay full stamp and not a reduced rate, or else I wouldn’t get my full pension – so I did, for all of my life.”
She explained she was working as a manager at a supermarket, going in at 4am and not getting home until 9pm, and not getting overtime pay.
Ms Sepahi then experienced personal challenges in her own personal life, stating: “I retired in 2016 after an at-work accident left me disabled.”
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She added: “My estimated annual income is about £11,000, take away £150 monthly. It’s clear how limited I am.”
Fortunately, Ms Sepahi has been able to keep her energy costs low by obtaining free solar panels through a Government scheme.
However, she is still worried about what will occur in the winter, and as a result, she is living with the lights off as much as possible.
Having been born in the post-war generation, Ms Sepahi reminisced on the previous “make do and mend attitude” many Britons adopted.
But the pensioner also expressed her concern about what she perceived as a return to this approach given the cost of living crisis.
She explained: “When we were children, everyone grew fruits and vegetables in the garden. My mother kept chickens, pigeons and rabbits, and would sell the chicken’s eggs to the neighbours – we’d eat the rabbits and the pigeons.
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“I’m lucky that I am part of that post-war generation that knows how to fend for ourselves. We got by.
“I now use apps like Too Good To Go to keep my costs down. I can cook anything from scratch. But it shouldn’t have to be that way.
“Back in the day, we used to live off bread and potatoes, Irish stew and other cheap ingredients to reduce what we spent.
“Now, I go to the bakery to pick up a huge bag of bread, and I try to make that go around and feed my family.
“The price rises make it just as hard as it was for us back in the 1970s. It’s like going back to those times.”
The pensioner was also outraged at the temporary freeze to the triple lock this year, enacted by former Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
She urged the Government to provide further support to pensioners to help them with their finances.
Ms Sepahi concluded: “When they said they were cutting the state pension triple lock this year, I thought Margaret Thatcher had risen from the grave and come back. She was the one who severed the relationship between the state pension and wage growth. That’s why our pensions are so bad now. It’s unbelievable.
“Boris Johnson should hang his head in shame at pensioners having to ration their food, and choose between heating and eating.
“He hasn’t got a clue what it is like to bring up a family from hand to mouth, or to have to go to work otherwise you’d starve. We need more support.”
A DWP spokesperson told Express.co.uk: “We recognise the pressures pensioners are facing and all pensioner households will receive £300 to help them cover the rising cost of energy this winter, with those on Pension Credit getting a further £650 cost of living payment. This is in addition to the £150 council tax rebate for the vast majority of households, and £400 discount on their energy bills.
“The full yearly amount of the basic state pension is now over £2,300 higher than in 2010, with 400,000 fewer pensioners in absolute poverty after housing costs in 2020/21 than in 2009/10.
“We also provide additional annual support through Winter Fuel Payments while a third of our Household Support Fund is dedicated to helping pensioners with the cost of everyday essentials.”
