http://www.waspi.co.uk/
I missed this demo on Tuesday that Mhairi Black the SNP dynamic young MP gave support for. This is about the pension age problems we are having. I too have fallen foul of the changes being born in 1954 I cannot get my state pension. Ironically I was in at home that day in a dark place with my mental state... As I had had a letter from the DWP that they are taking money off my JSA.... I get a very small NHS pension of £65 a month yea a month and they have recalibrated this to my JSA and are taking some said over payment out too. For those of you that know me this is dreadful as I have an history of being a victim of DV and abuse and my Moroccan husband leaving me penniless... a total haram thing to do as the Islamic law is that one you do not hit your wife but respect her and two if you leave her you are to provide for her... So not a happy bunny with all this... I had time out of practice to recover from the trauma and now on benefits... do note benefits I have paid into over my working years. This is the hurtful thing... Some weeks I could earn around £1000 a week and have over a quarter taken off in tax and then NI contributions.... and so I have paid into a system to help me in my time of need and vulnerability. Yet we have so much aggro to get that support. My state pension will not be payable till 2020 if I live that long....
Having no financial dignity and financial freedom for old age is very scary indeed. Not one but two husbands cheated me out of my funds... Sadly I did not go to the Zsa Zsa Gabor school of how to make money out of divorces... and with husband number two was not a Zsa Zsa housekeeper.. rather he coerced me to sign it over to him!! girls if a fella raises his hand to you or starts showing signs of controlling get the hell out or he will make your life hell.
With the new laws on DV that Mrs May is talking about I hope we victims can get a better deal... and certainly we need a golden financial bridge to get us from A = abuse to B a new life healed from all the toxicity of violence upon us.. and we certainly do not need the system battering us with loopholes and badly written policies that hurt us by making us more vulnerable that ever. If support is taken from a victim or reduced it could to put it bluntly result in her death.. either she goes back to her perpetrator and the cycle of violence the next beating may be murdered... or she is so low in her depression of post traumatic stress that she commits suicide.... The DWP needs to make special pathway for the victims of DV....
And for women that have been managing two jobs her career and family she is likely to get burn out early and need to retire at 60 yrs ......
But in all this we have to ask where the heck is all this money going that we pay in ... and every move we make is taxed... even those on benefits pay tax in VAT on goods that they try to purchase with what little is given. Everyone that puts one foot on the soil of the UK pays tax ...those that needed visas to come paid into the country with that visa... every car has road tax all the petrol taxed...There is a phenomenal amount of money coming into the treasury when you sit and think it out.... But not as much as should be with higher earners tax evading and corporate tax at some ridiculous low rate or totally evaded all together. Of course some tax is lost to offshore squirreling at the cost of services and the rest of the nation.
Real mess....
I did get a lump sum pay out of £5000 last year but I did something with this that was a total expression of me... after getting some things for the garden in my sheltered bungalow and some bits and pieces for me I went out to see my refugee family I am helping. I felt alive liberated to get on that plane and go and do something that made me feel Sister Marjorie again.. Love being in the camps and helping out. But alas that funding is gone now and I need to find some funds, donations, grants and sponsors to be able to continue with this liberating and worthwhile work.
All I need now is for government to recognise this with some financial support.. All my letters and emails to key ministers and Mayor say wonderful that you doing this but there is no money for you!!!!!
I think when a woman has found a way to rebuild her life again after abuse then she should be helped. If this is helping others out of their trauma and rebuilding their lives...then surely this should be seen of value to the community as a whole.......
So I am back out of my black hole of despair and up and challenging and continuing to find a way to keep me alive me MARJORIE the woman that loves life and is driven by care and compassion for others... but with this driven by the need to get justice for those that have been hurt with man made pain upon them.... It will catch up one day for sure.... in the meantime onwards and upwards we keep soldiering on in life.....
