WASPI Dilemma - To Heat or To Eat

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

Please also visit the Government's own Working Tax Credit Calculator here Tax Credits Calculator

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.