'I face losing my husband if I can't keep him warm because of Winter Fuel Payment cut'
Unpaid carer Shirley has spent the past 18-years caring for her stricken husband who has survived strokes and cancer, but is now ravaged with dementia and diabetes and spends his days and nights wrapped up under a blanket
As one of Britain’s army of unpaid carers, every day is an uphill struggle for Shirley Walker.
The selfless 87-year-old suffers with crippling arthritis yet has dedicated the past 18-years of her life devotedly caring for her bed-bound husband.
Tony, 90, who has been struck down but survived strokes and cancer, is now ravaged with dementia and diabetes and spends his days and nights wrapped up under a blanket.
He cannot move, so feels the cold more than most people his age, and it is vital he remains warm and comfortable.
This winter will be particularly hard as the heating will be on at their home in Woodbridge, Suffolk, but the couple will be denied a £600 winter fuel allowance payment because of Labour's unexplained pensioner payout purge.
Shirley, who turns 88 next month, said: “We have been as independent as we can be and have small pensions, in addition to our old age pensions. However, I am going to have to juggle the extra money I need to meet all his care needs and keep our bungalow at a temperature which ensures he is warm. I know we are not alone in these circumstances but this is very worrying.
“I face losing my husband without being able to ensure he is at least in a warm and comfortable home when he dies.
“We won’t get anything this year. I haven’t got a stack of money but I won’t see him go cold. I am a fighter and I will go into bat for him all the time. I didn’t sign up for just the good times, it’s the bad bits that matter too.”
Tony and Shirley were both born in Gravesend, Kent. They have two children and four grandchildren.
Tony was once a fearsome amateur boxer, referee and later judge who dedicated his life to the sport. An imposing man, his later life has been beset by health problems and his doctor placed him on end-of-life care earlier this year. Yet Shirley refuses to give up on him, or 55-years of marriage.
She said: “It’s very important for Tony to keep warm and comfortable because he feels the cold badly
“We have central heating and I can turn it on, but don’t know how long for. Somehow I will manage.
“I have faced so many things in my life that I am prepared to face this. It’s the way I was brought up. I can’t run away from it. Some older people can’t express themselves and I feel so sorry for them.”
The annual cash payment, a lump sum made available by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown to all pensioners since 1997, will be officially scrapped on September 16 with only those passing a humiliating means-test qualifying.
Only those in receipt of Pension Credit - which 900,000 OAPs are too proud to claim - or certain other benefits will be entitled to cash.
For them the allowance remains unchanged at £200 for those aged between 66 and 79 and £300 for those over 80.
But the number entitled to the one-off payment helping them cover costs through the coldest months of the year will plummet from 11.4 million to 1.5 million.
That will leave 10 million pensioners, already existing on meagre incomes, worried about keeping warm without resorting to turning the heating on.
Shirley said: “It started in 2006 when Tony suffered his first stroke and it went downhill from there. But I wouldn’t have deserted him, no matter what happened.
“Tony is my main concern. If I drop first, well, that’s another matter.
“I am worried because I don’t know how much money we will have but I know I can’t let him suffer.
“He’s not moving so he feels the cold, but I always make sure he is well covered. If I have to cut down on something else, I will. It’s going to have to be faced, that's the long and short of it.
“The doctor sat me down back in February and said, ‘Shirley, this is end of life - you’re going to have to be prepared’. But the man is so resilient and I try to keep him going.
“The way he said it I thought it was imminent. He is not going to get back to how he was and he can’t remember things.”
Shirley said: “Tony is still here. He’s not always compos mentis but he’s still will us.
“He’s survived a lot - dementia, strokes, cancer, you name he has had. He was always a big strong and fit man. Tony is now a sick man, but he is also a tough man. My priority this winter is to keep him safe and warm.”
Baroness Ros Altmann, 68 the campaigning crossbench Peer, said: “Those pensioners I am most worried about are those who have already cut their spending to the bone, who live in energy inefficient homes, who spend most of their time at home, and have no way of replacing this lost money as energy bills rise. All they can do is turn down or turn off the heating.
“Those of us living comfortably forget about the reality of life for so many proud but frail older citizens. These pensioners have grown up making do with what they have and never wanting to be in debt. “Those in their 80s and 90s have suddenly had £300 snatched away from them without warning. Obviously this is causing real distress.”
