Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Every time Mandy Jones left home to go to work, she was plagued by the fear that she would leave her seriously ill husband, who had cancer, home alone.
John was forced to retire at the age of 61 after being diagnosed with severe liver disease, subsequently required an emergency liver transplant and is now severely immunocompromised.
“I left him at home sitting on the settee and went out and he looked so unwell and sick that I was afraid he would be dead when I got home,” she said. I.
“John was too ill to continue working and with his pension as the only means of living he felt he had to continue going to work a few days a week.”
Ms Jones, 67, who lives in Warwickshire, is one of a group of women against state pension inequality (WASPI) who are expected to be affected by the changes to the state pension age.
talk IJones said that while she hasn’t been hit as hard financially as other WASP women because of her husband’s police pension, she resents the injustice of women being forced to continue working with little or no notice about the state pension increase from 60 to 66.
“We effectively signed a contract with the government that I think we all feel was broken,” she said. “Times were very different in the 1970s and 1980s, many of us had low-paid jobs and in many ways little equality with men, including pay for the same work.
“We have tended to be the gender that, for the most part, raises the kids, runs the household, and becomes the unpaid caregiver when needed.”
Jones explained that she and her husband, who she married in 1996, are both second-married. Jones has one daughter from her first marriage and her husband has two sons. The couple have eight grandchildren.
“I was a mobile hairdresser for many years and then moved into retail when I was 50,” she says. “It wasn’t a particularly high-paying job, but John was working long hours as a detective investigating murder cases and things like that, so it was a better fit.”
“I didn’t have a private pension because I didn’t earn enough to pay into it.
“But I thought I would be able to get my state pension at age 60 and I received no notice about the change.”
Ms Jones said her husband worked for Birmingham police for 30 years before retiring in 2006, aged 50, and was then recruited by Warwickshire police, where he joined as data protection officer.
However, he fell ill and was diagnosed with severe liver disease. His health continued to deteriorate and, at the age of 61, he was forced to retire from work due to illness.
Ms Jones used to work retail at a jewellery store, but reduced her hours to three days a week after her husband’s illness caused cognitive decline that meant he could no longer drive and she had to accompany him to all his medical appointments. She herself suffered a heart attack in 2019 and had to have a stent fitted.
A routine MRI scan of her husband’s liver in November 2019 revealed liver cancer, and doctors told her that, given the condition of his liver, the only way he would survive was a liver transplant or he would likely die within months.
Jones said she often left her husband behind when she went to work because she feared he would be dead when she returned home.
He was placed on the transplant waiting list and received a liver transplant in May 2020. He is recovering well, but is unable to return to work because he remains immunosuppressed and has also been diagnosed with congenital heart failure.
Jones was effectively made redundant in October last year due to the economic situation, but only started receiving her state pension in April last year.
“We haven’t been affected as financially as others because my husband is on a police pension, but I’m angry that I wasn’t informed about the changes to the state pension age.
“If I had retired earlier, I would have been able to be there to care for my husband when he was seriously ill and I would not have had to worry so much about the possibility that I might come home to find him dead at work.
“I am outraged that the Government has raised the state pension age for women with little or no notice, creating an impossible situation for millions of low-paid women with no opportunity or time to make up for the gap in their income.”
“I’ve always paid tax and National Insurance, like other women from the 1950s, so it’s really unfair that I’ve not been given any notice.
“Stories of payments of just £1,000 to £3,000 when up to £50,000 have been taken are pathetic.
“Many of us have lost a lot of things in terms of time to spend with our loved ones that pensions and retirement benefits could have replaced.”
With a general election looming, Jones is adamant about one thing: “I never want the Conservatives in power again. They have lied to the public and lined their own pockets.”
“But they have put the country in such a mess, I have no idea how the Labour party can fix it and promise anything for so many people who have suffered – postal workers, Grenfell, the infected blood scandal and the WASP women. We are all still waiting for justice to be delivered.”
Angela Madden, chair of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), said: “The government’s failure to properly communicate the state pension age increase has meant many women have had to make unimaginable sacrifices.”
“People without private pensions have been hit hardest, leaving many, like Mandy Jones, desperately searching for new work in later years whilst caring for seriously ill relatives.”
“With just weeks to go until the general election, WASPI women across the country expect all political parties to commit to delivering fair compensation as soon as possible in the new parliament.”
“With one WASP woman dying every 13 minutes, we cannot afford to wait any longer.”