I grew up in poverty and I feel like I’m ending my life how I started it
One retiree with limited income opens up about how she makes her money work. By
Yvonne Bailey vividly remembers what it was like to be raised in poverty in post-war England. For the family, living in Oxfordshire, food was very scarce, there was no heating and a constant nagging worry about money.
During the winter months, before school, her mum heated her clothes in the oven because they had become icy overnight.
For years, Ms Bailey fought to escape poverty. She moved to London at the age of 16 to find work. She worked long hours and saved every penny she could.
Then she met her husband and together they raised a family. Some years, Ms Bailey says, they could even afford to go on holidays.
“Those years were the best years of my life,” she recalls.
But now, Ms Bailey says, she is counting money every day. After her husband died almost three decades ago, Ms Bailey, now 79, moved out of their rental accommodation and into a social housing flat.
She gave up her car. She learned how to budget and live within her new means – but none of this had ever been the plan.
“I simply didn’t think I’d end my life like I started it,” she says, referring to her life in the late 40s and early 50s.
The worst thing, she says, is the feeling of missing out. Growing up, even though several friends also lived in social housing, it felt as if things were harder for her family.
She grew up without a father, so her mother needed to care for her and her siblings alone. She never had new clothes and was often hungry.
Ms Bailey says she often gets those same jolts of jealousy. Sometimes she has to say no to a £4 coffee.
She is one of a fifth of pensioners in the UK who are living in relative poverty. This is the highest number since 2007-08, analysis of 2021 Government figures by Independent Age show.
In total, 2.1 million retirees are living in severe hardship after paying their housing costs, with an additional 1.1 million living in financial insecurity just above the poverty line.
People over 85 are most affected, and women worse affected than men, according to the charity. Ms Bailey wishes she had spent more time learning about money when younger. Even though she would usually pay the family bills, she didn’t know then how paying only married women’s pensions would leave her worse off in retirement. She worked in hospitality for years and thinks she has probably had more than 30 jobs since she started her first job at Thomas Cook in the 60s. She retired 20 years ago – and couldn’t wait for the last chapter of her life to come after decades of hard work, including caring for her boy and grandchild.
Now, Ms Bailey often feels lonely and anxious about money. She is close with her children and has many good friends – some of whom are several years younger – and she is relatively healthy, even though she has some mobility issues.
But life just isn’t the same as it was in her best years, she says, although she confirms there are some positives, compared with when she was at her lowest. She has found a way to get pension credit and also inherited her late husband’s state pension. Ms Bailey has no savings but, being a widow, she is entitled to housing benefit.
“It has taken away the concern of being able to afford that one cup of coffee or not,” she says.
Ms Bailey is active in the social scene in Oxfordshire. She drinks coffee with her friends – sometimes they end up chatting for hours.
“My friends are an extended family to me,” she admits.