Waspi woman's desperate step after State Pension snub. 'Burned neighbour's fence for heat'

WASPI WOMAN Maggie Mackay had to wait six years longer than expected to claim her State Pension and is still hard up as a result. She couldn't afford to heat her home during a recent cold snap, so took a desperate step.

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Maggie, 68, is one of millions of women born in the 1950s who are struggling to fund the basics of everyday life, after being forced to wait six years longer than expected to claim their State Pension. Campaign group Women Against State Pension Injustice is battling to win compensation for 3.5 million women affected by increasing the State Pension age from 60 to 66, but it is proving a tough struggle.

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.”

This an everyday reality for many in modern Britain due to the cost of living crisis. Yet few have gone as far as Maggie to heat their homes.

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Waspi woman Maggie Mackay defied arthritis to saw down a neighbour's fence and stay warm (Image: Maggie/Getty)

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 a local tractor 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."

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She gets Pension Credit of £160 on top of that, taking her total income to £591 a month, or £7,092 a year.

Any hopes of relying on her husband's company and personal pensions in retirement were dashed after the divorce. 

As inflation rockets, everything looks "breathtakingly expensive" to Maggie. 

She can’t afford to buy diesel for her car and has just £40 or £50 to buy a food for a fortnight at Tesco. “I live on simple stuff such as porridge and natural yoghurt. Every month I seem to get less for the same amount of money."

It was her birthday last Monday, and her favourite food is roast lamb. "There's no way I could spend £15 on one meal, plus cost of cooking it," she says.

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Women often struggle after failing to build up enough pension in their own name (Image: Getty)

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 say they received up to £50,000 less State Pension than they had expected. Now they are awaiting compensation for the lack of notice they received about the changes, which was a major blow to their retirement plans.

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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