Alice Waring welcomes allowance rise of €5 but knows what it is like to be ‘stretched a bit’
now thinks about how many radiators she can afford to put on, given rocketing fuel costs. She is not alone, she says., welcomed the rise of the fuel allowance by €5 a week as well as the same top-up in the pension, saying she “didn’t expect the two fivers”.
She appealed the Department of Social Protection’s refusal to grant her the contributory pension, but lost. She had, she said, no choice but to “get on with” living with the reduced benefit. “It is a worry. I am half-thinking of putting the bed into the sitting room for the winter. Sure why not?” said the pensioner. The budget day increase will “certainly help, but it could be a bit more”.
“With the pension you are stretched a bit. Everything is going up and up,” says Waring, who lives with osteoporosis and osteoarthritis, but still manages to stay active and involved in charity fundraising.Grateful for the help offered by the Cope senior support services in Galway, and for some aid in discovering how to turn down a complicated radiator, Alice says her generation sometimes feel like a cohort that “the Government want out of the way”.
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