‘I can’t afford heating and my hands are blue – I need every penny of my triple lock pension’
Sitting huddled under blankets, putting off switching on the heating for as long as possible, with only one light on when she desperately needs it, Fiona Johnson knows she has nothing left to cut back on.
The 73-year-old told i she worked from the age of 15 until her retirement at 65 – but would carry on working now to bring in extra money if an accident hadn’t left her disabled and barely able to walk.
She is angered and upset that the state pension triple lock, which increases the state pension by the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent, may be under threat in the upcoming Autumn Statement as Jeremy Hunt considers limiting the size of the increase in pension payments to save money.
“Older people are seen as a burden and surplus to requirements,” Ms Johnson says. “I feel like even though we spent our whole life contributing to this country, because we aren’t producing anything now, the Government views pensioners as something they can economise on and use the money elsewhere.
“But your expenses don’t suddenly become less when you’re a pensioner – in fact for a lot of people, they are likely to increase due to ill health and the fact that their income is not increasing.”
Ms Johnson, who lives in Doncaster, says she has “cut back on absolutely everything” and lives in fear of anything breaking down in her home as she cannot afford to get it fixed.
“My gas fire has been condemned but I can’t afford to get a new one and I have a single oil-fired radiator which I don’t use as it’s too expensive to run.
“I hardly ever put the heating on and if I do, it’s just for an hour or two. I just try to sit under blankets and use leftover water from making cups of tea to fill a hot water bottle to keep warm.
“My hands are always blue and will probably stay that way until March.”
Ms Johnson, a former council worker for children with disabilities, suffered a horse riding accident towards the end of her career, which left her disabled.
“I was hung upside down by my left leg on the stirrup which separated the knee joint and ripped off ligaments and tendons,” she explains. “It has affected my mobility and I can just about walk from my house to my car and no further.
“I also have various ailments and my bones are crumbling and I have to use an automatic car and mobility scooters.”
Ms Johnson says the only area she can’t make cutbacks in is food as she has coeliac disease and can only eat gluten-free foods, which are more expensive.
“The cheaper the food, the more likely it is to contain gluten because it’s a cheap filler,” she says. “As I can’t cut costs with the kind of food I buy, I am buying less food and not buying things like fruit and vegetables as they go off so quickly when you’re a one-person household.
“I never use my oven or hob and just use an air fryer and slow cooker. I listen to the radio instead of watching television as it uses less electricity. I don’t know what else I can cut.”
Ms Johnson’s income decreased when she was moved from receiving Disability Living Allowance (DLA) to Personal Independence Payment (PIP) benefits as she was assessed to not be sufficiently disabled enough to get the full mobility allowance that she had received for 10 years on the DLA. “Nothing had changed – in fact my mobility and health had got worse,” she says.
Fearing that the Government may tweak the rules of the state pension triple lock by using a lower calculation of earnings rises than usual, she says: “It is just another thing to break the camel’s back when we’ve already got inflation, high fuel costs and the price of everything going through the ceiling.”
Using the normal rules, the state pension would increase by 8.5 per cent next year – reaching a level of £221.20 for the full new state pension. But that figure is inflated by a one-off payment given to many public service workers over the summer in a bid to end strike action.
The Chancellor is instead considering using a figure for average earnings growth which excludes bonuses, coming in at 7.8 per cent. This would cost pensioners up to £1.45 a week, or £75 a year, while saving around £900m for the Exchequer.
“When your income isn’t increasing and everything around you is subject to inflation, you get to a point where you haven’t got enough money for your day-to-day expenses,” Ms Johnson says.
“Is this really how this country wants to treat its pensioners? Is this really how you value us? I need every penny of my pension and without the triple lock, life will be much worse.”
Joanne Elson, chief executive of Independent Age, a charity supporting older people facing financial hardship, told i: “Every day, we speak to people in later life who are skipping meals or not turning on the lights because they simply cannot afford to.
“The additional £75 a year people would receive if the full triple lock was maintained might sound like a small amount of money, but for older people on very low incomes forced to make dangerous cutbacks and who are counting every penny, it remains important.
“We know this annual debate over whether the triple lock will be maintained causes uncertainty and anxiety for the one in five single pensioners who rely solely on the state pension and benefits for their income and we want this to stop.
“Independent Age is calling on the Government to commission a cross-party review to agree a long term plan to ensure that everybody in later life has the income they need to avoid poverty.”
