WASPI Dilemma – To Heat Or To Eat?
Wouldn't it be
better to have your cake..AND Heat it?
Now that we've finally said “goodbye” to that “Annus
Horribilis” of 2016 it's time to contemplate 2017 and beyond.
Many WASPI women, and some men, are facing still more
challenges and uncertainty from suddenly finding themselves
“pensionless pensioners” and faced with no jobs, no income and
having to stand in line with everyone else at the Jobcentre to claim
handouts, which, under this increasingly murderous Tory government,
they might never receive.
We can only continue to spread the word about the evil
and unjust way we have been robbed by the DWP and continue to fight
for a fair outcome – at the very least an interim series of,
possibly reduced, payments until we finally reach our designated
State Pension Age.
I am one of you. Like many of you I will have to wait 6
years for my state pension and was never officially informed of the
fact other than the odd whisper in the media from which I caught on
to the fact that I would probably have to wait until I was 66.
However, I consider myself to be one of the luckier
ones. I have a part-time job AND I am also self-employed, and both of
these jobs enable me to spend a lot of hours at home doing things I
love to do. I am a widow of four years and don't have any
grand-children like many of you, but if I did, I'm sure I would want
to spend time with them and thankfully both my parents are alive and
in reasonably good health, so I have not yet been called upon to be a
full-time carer for either of them, which, of course, I would do in a
flash and even with all that extra time drain, I would still be able
to keep both my jobs and my quality time at home.
My own health is reasonable but up and down. Sometimes
it takes supreme effort to get out of bed in the morning, mainly due
to the pains in my back and legs and I am also diabetic, but I try to
keep going because I know that if I give in, as I am tempted to do
many times, I will probably end up a bored and lonely old woman with
no-one to talk to and no reason to do anything at all.
So, it is with all the above in mind that I have decided
that 2017 is the year in which I will really try to get involved in
the WASPI campaign and also reach out to my fellow WASPIs with a
message that all is not lost!
Many of you have said that you feel that your lives have
come down to an everyday choice of whether to eat, or heat your home
because that's what it has become. You may have a “job” that you
were hoping to leave but can't because if you did you would be
heading for destitution. Or, worse still, you don't have a job and
feel embarassed and humiliated going to the Jobcentre to sign on for
your £70 a week, which we all know just isn't enough to live on no
matter how frugally you try to live.
So, how can you have your cake...and heat it? Well,
sadly, there is no easy answer because it really depends on your
individual circumstances and I can't answer that question for you but
I can point you in the right direction. It's called Working Tax
Credit and one of the things that the Tory government actually got
right!
Unfortunately, they don't go out of their way to teach
people how to use it and the benefits are hidden away as part of
their agenda to get everyone into “work” so that they can claim
credit for reducing the unemployment figures. It is simply referred
to as an “in work benefit” and we therefore assume it is only for
those with paying jobs. It isn't!
You don't even have to have an income to claim Working
Tax Credit. This is because it is based on the amount of hours you
“work”, not how much you are paid for that work.
Let me explain how this works for me. I have a paid job
and I am self-employed. My paid job is actually a “zero hours
contract” which, for me, is great! I can work when I want to,
mainly from home and I get paid either on actual hours worked or a
commission on sales, whichever is the greater at the end of every
month. Trust me, this is a genuine job with a recognised wine company
and my title is “Wine Adviser”. I make some of my own
appointments from home and the company provide some too and I can
potentially earn as little, or as much, as I want to. All I then have
to do is visit my customers and sell them wine. If they buy, great, I
earn commission. If they don't I get paid a considerably reduced, but
legal, hourly rate.
So, because I am only working an average of 15 hours a
week at this I don't earn a lot from it but it's enough to pay my
everyday bills. In addition to this, because my income is quite low,
I can claim housing benefit and council tax credits.
I am also self-employed and this takes me well over the
required hours for a 60 year old of 16 hours per week. My
self-employment is made up of a number of activities, none of which
are particularly strenuous but all of which are very enjoyable. Along
with my business partner who is 70 and claiming his state pension, we
run MiTeamShirts, a t-shirt printing and personalised goods business
which operates from his home, is mainly internet based and generates
a reasonable turnover with growth potential, but with small taxable profits.
I also have an Ebay shop, from which I sell, at a
reasonable mark-up, goods like collectibles that I pick up from
auctions and charity shops. It's great fun, gets me out of the house
and is currently ticking over nicely.
There are a couple of other income streams I have which
anyone can do that I am developing but the most important thing about
all of these is that I love doing them, and they allow me to claim
Working Tax Credits in addition and in total give me an income not
far short of what I would be receiving from the State Pension.....Roll on SPA!!
So, I'm doing okay and grateful for everything I've got
but the important message here is that provided you are over 60 and
working (employed or self-employed) at least 16 hours a week, you
could probably claim Working Tax Credit too!
If
you have an Ebay shop, or similar, that is registered as a business,
and you notify the tax authorities within one year of starting up,
then you are self-employed!
Make
it a habit to attend one auction a week for 8 hours and then spend
another 8 hours at home listing your items and shipping them out when
you sell them and you could potentially qualify for Working Tax Credits. (I
stress potentially because it really depends on how much actual
income you already have coming in but as a rough guide it could be up
to £19,000 a year including pension income).
So
please take heart from this ladies and gentlemen – all is not lost!
Check out the link below to go to the Money Advice Service for more
information on Working Tax Credit.
Money Advice Service
If you are interested in discovering other routes to
self-employment and working from home contact me on Twitter
or email me chris011056@gmail.com
and I will do my best to help.
Chrissie Fuller
January 2017
Chrissie Fuller is a WASPI member, with previous experience as an Independent Financial Adviser.
