A Slice of Bread and Butter
The voice of The Bread and Butter Thing - with stories from the frontline of the cost of living crisis from one of the UK's leading food charities.
A Slice of Bread and Butter
Paws, pension credits and being a good neighbour: Meet Marie
This week, Mark and Alex sit down with Marie, a dog-loving, community-driven retired nursery nurse who’s only recently discovered pension credits after months of financial struggle. Tune in as we chat about the importance of being a good neighbour, the challenges many retirees face, from rising living costs to the lack of awareness around available benefits and, of course, Mark’s favourite topic (no prizes for guessing what) dogs!
Welcome back to A Slice of Bread and Butter with Mark and Alex from the Bread and Butter Thing. We're a charity that delivers affordable food to the heart of struggling neighbourhoods, to help nourish communities and act as a catalyst for change.
Speaker 2:We provide access to a nutritious, affordable range of food, which means our members can save money on their shopping, feed their families healthily, as well as access other support too, right in the heart of their communities.
Speaker 1:Yep, and this is where we share a slice of life with somebody involved in bread and butter and hear about they, connect with us.
Speaker 2:So who is it today?
Speaker 1:Well, this was definitely right up my street. I went to see Marie, who is amazing, but she had an eight-week-old puppy as well, which was just a ton of fun Brucie bonus. Brucie bonus. Let's have a listen.
Speaker 3:Hi, I'm Marie. I'm retired. I've been retired 14 years now. I did work as a nursery nurse, then went on to do the higher grade and was teaching children Till I retired, and I still do voluntary work.
Speaker 1:You can hear Pip in the background. She's a little eight week old puppy and it's her first day away from her mum, which is why we can hear her bless her. But we're just going to work through her.
Speaker 3:Well, the reason I've brought Pip home here is a lady who lives in the same complex. I do lost her dog last year and she seems to be deteriorating a bit, giving up. She's the same age as me, so I'm trying to introduce her to pip and to give her motivation to get out and take Pip out for walks and things.
Speaker 1:So you're still fixing things.
Speaker 3:Fixing things, yeah, For other people yeah.
Speaker 1:Indeed. So, Maria, you're a WASPI woman. Did you miss out on the pension or did you get state pension at 60?
Speaker 3:No, I had to work an extra 10 months. I should have retired 1970 and I had to work the December of 1970 and I had to work till the October of 71.
Speaker 1:And you were married.
Speaker 3:I was married. I was with my husband for 45 years. We lived together for 14 years and we were married for 31 years. Four children two boys, two girls. 31 years. Four children two boys, two girls, which obviously the youngest one is 45. The eldest one's 55.
Speaker 1:Grandkids.
Speaker 3:Ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Wow, that's quite a family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do you all?
Speaker 3:manage to get together. We don't often when it's birthdays, special birthdays and things we get together. Don't often when it's birthdays, special birthdays and things we get together, Because one lives in Crumsell, the other lives in Cheshire, One lives in Hulme and one in Old Trafford, so they're all over the place really Spread across the North West?
Speaker 1:Do you have much pension? Does it stretch?
Speaker 3:No, you find it very difficult at times and I have to ask my family to help me really, which quite hard. But what to do? What can you do? It's the cost of living and when I moved in here where I'm living 10 years ago because we did live in a house and the rent and things was quite high, I didn't realize that I was entitled to benefits. So it was only with this drive that they had last year about pension credits. I didn't think I could have that. I then went to St John's, which is a centre on Ayres Road, and spoke to a lady there because somebody said to me go and see. I then found out I was entitled to pension credit.
Speaker 3:Not a lot but it's a help and before that it was a struggle getting dentist appointments and things because you had to pay for everything, because you didn't have pension credits.
Speaker 1:Glasses. So the pension credit covers covers so much so with pension credit you get free dentist, do you?
Speaker 3:uh, yes, you don't pay for dentist treatment and does it pay for the opticians?
Speaker 1:well, it'll pay the biggest part of it okay gosh, I didn't know if they didn't have that big drive on pension credit because of the heating thing yeah, when they took away the winter took away the winter fuel, because if I didn't get this small amount of pension credit, I wouldn't have got that neither so we talk about this quite often people that work all their lives when they support, they just don't know where to go.
Speaker 3:No, I started work when I was 14. My mother brought me from Ireland when I was 14 and registered me at 8 Town Street and said I was 15. And I didn't realise that till the Department of Works and Pensions wrote to me and said I hadn't claimed my pension and I said well, I'm not entitled to my pension. I told them my date of birth and they said, no, they had me down as 1948 instead of 1950. And I said, no, I was born 1950. And that was all sorted out. But by then mum was dead and buried anyway, so I didn't get any expiry, which happened with a lot of Irish people.
Speaker 1:So what kind of support do your family give you?
Speaker 3:When I need furniture and things, the children help me out. They pool together. Yeah, but they don't give you food and fuel and rain, if I needed it, I would only have to say but obviously you don't, do you try not to? And they do turn up with little treats and things.
Speaker 1:After your energy bills and your rent, how much do you think you've got to live on monthly?
Speaker 3:Now I would say maybe about £200 for the month.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Once I've paid everything out and things which is like £50 a week for my shopping.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Which I then go to the bread and butter on a Thursday and I give out the numbers tickets there and the tea. I help with the tea and coffee there because you go to big life. Yeah, yeah, so you're one of Sue's crow yeah, and I also go to a group on a Friday night. That's home. It's a women's group on a Friday night and we go to the theatre at home theatre, since I've been going to the bread and butter thing, that's how I found out about home reading a leaflet.
Speaker 1:OK, so you wouldn't have known about home had you not gone to bread and butter to get your food. And it's a similar pattern, isn't it? Again, it's like not knowing where to go.
Speaker 3:Where to go. I'd have spent my life in here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what do you think people like local authorities or government could do to try and give people like you more information? You said that they had this big splurge on information On pension credits Pension credits last year.
Speaker 3:Well, I think they need to do it, like particularly what's going on in areas and things, maybe in complexes like this this is for the over 55s here maybe leaflets through doors and things letting people know, or posters to put up.
Speaker 1:So this is a retirement complex.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's one of the social landlords, isn't it? Of Manchester? Yeah, Do your housing not provide any of that information?
Speaker 3:not particularly no okay, that's interesting I moved in here hoping that there would be people like me, yeah, who we would have activities going on or something, but there's nothing.
Speaker 1:Like that goes on okay, I ask everybody this what's the weirdest thing you've had out of a bread and butter bag?
Speaker 3:If there's things I don't use myself what I do I take it into the main building and there's a kitchen in there. We all do it with things that you don't use yourself and people help themselves.
Speaker 1:And everybody shares.
Speaker 3:So everybody shares. So, in a way, it's helping other people as well. And then word of mouth. I have told people about bread and butter and a lady that I know who's just recovering from cancer and things. She's had to give up work and she was a bit stuck and I said, well, come along with me on a Friday, which she did Great.
Speaker 3:And I enjoy going to well, come along with me on a Friday, which she did great and I enjoy going to the bread and butter thing on a Thursday. I go from 12 o'clock where other people go and volunteer from 12 o'clock as well. Um, I've met a circle of friends there as well, so nice which is nice, and Sue's lovely.
Speaker 1:She is lovely she's a diamond geezer. Yeah, she is. Yeah, so Tamden's done a brilliant job of engineering out some of the puppy noises because, oh my goodness, that puppy was noisy.
Speaker 2:I saw a picture and everybody else will get to see the picture as well. How cute and how amazing to take on. I mean, we all know anybody who's owned a dog will know puppy life is a hard life. It always seems like a good idea until you have them. But imagine taking that responsibility on for an elderly neighbor.
Speaker 1:that's just amazing yeah, and to keep the story going. So what happened was her neighbor felt it was too much to take the puppy. So marie ended up back with the dog and she called me the following day and said do you know anybody that would want the puppy? Because when I came back here to the office, mike, one of our colleagues said oh my goodness, if that neighbor doesn't want that puppy, I'm having it. So it's actually ended up with Mike's brother. No, so she's now called Lulu, princess Lulu, and she's she's being spoiled, rotten by Mike's family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh wow, I did not. That was not on my bingo card for the podcast, or probably this year yeah, so there you go a happy ending all around happy ending all around.
Speaker 1:But I think pets is a tricky one, isn't it? Because they're expensive, but they really do help with loneliness absolutely now.
Speaker 2:I met Marie at Big Life, probably September, october last year and this was pre the government promotion about pension credits and Marie was clueless I say clueless in the nicest possible way that she was entitled to extra help. So she'd been telling me about how when her other little dog was poorly she could get no help from the PDSA. She didn't qualify for any extra benefits or support when it came to her eyes, so she'd had a really expensive pair of glasses, unavoidable because she, because of the prescription right yeah, super strong lenses and that 260 pound bill just wiped her out.
Speaker 2:It was really nice to hear. Actually, it sounds like she's in a better place than when I last spoke to her and this is really interesting, isn't it?
Speaker 1:because there was a government push on pension credit when they took the winter fuel allowance away, yes, right, and they saw a massive increase in people taking pension credits. And for people like marie that did not have a scooby about pension credits and the benefit that they gave them for dentistry, optometry and all the rest of it, all those people can't backdate, it can can't get that money back, which is a bit rubbish because actually they were entitled to it, and when they claim, they can only get credit and support from the date they claim rather than any backdated, which is tricky again, because, if you think about it, if they didn't do what they did with winter fuel allowance, would Marie be in any better place today than she was? I doubt it, because the only reason that they put the push on pension credit they did with winter fuel allowance. Would marie be in any better place today than she was?
Speaker 1:I doubt it, because the only reason that they put the push on pension credit was because of the winter fuel allowance being taken off them and there was such a backlash to that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is a common thread for us again, because I find that there's nowhere near enough information or support given to people that have worked all their lives and don't get a pension pot that's worth anything, or people that are in work. Where do they go for this help and support? Because there is tons of stuff out there that government are saying is there, but it's really hard to find and there's nobody out there trying to get people onto it and it's not auto-enroll, so it's really complicated and I just think it's not fit for purpose. It doesn't work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Hidden help and the fact that she lives on a retirement complex. You'd think that would be a sort of shining example of being able to cascade information to the perfect demographic target audience. And that's not even happening. A simple leaflet stuffed through letterboxes or posters up in communal areas, or even a knock on a door by a warden to say did you know X, y, z? And it's just not happening.
Speaker 1:No, and that, I think, is all the social landlords cutting back all the community offices and the community spaces and the community activities are being cut back because it costs a living, because they're trying to keep their rents to a minimum, but, as a result, all the other stuff that social landlords should be doing. As you say, it's a retirement complex. So so where's the activities? Marie was saying herself there isn't, and there used to be when she first moved in there. There was all sorts going on, but it's all gone.
Speaker 2:But communication about essentials, life essentials, should not be on a list of the nice-to-haves, should it?
Speaker 1:No, that's a really interesting point, isn't it? Because we always talk to our members and the podcasters about what do you see as a luxury?
Speaker 3:etc.
Speaker 1:And you're absolutely right. It shouldn't be a luxury for all this community support and a social landlord. It should be an essential.
Speaker 2:Couldn't agree more.
Speaker 1:I think also thinking about what Marie was telling us. You know we've talked in the past about the banker, mum and dad, with other podcasters. Marie was the opposite. When I asked her how she's getting by, her kids are paying for certain things.
Speaker 2:Her many, many kids and her many, many grandkids and her many, many grandkids.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm so pleased she's got such a massive support network underneath her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but they're supporting her now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's hard, because I don't think that she would be able to afford certain things like pets if it weren't for her kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, marie goes to the same hub as Dean. So I would imagine Marie's life is the opposite of Dean's in the fact that Dean's so isolated and Marie is being supported by her family underneath her.
Speaker 1:I think you called her matriarch before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I reckon that's from her days as a nursery nurse, wasn't? She, she was yeah, so she's always cared, and now she's being cared for, which is quite right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think she talked about volunteering and making tea, didn't she as well? Yes, it can go a long way just making a brew and just giving people a cup of tea in the community hubs and this goes back to what you were saying about the social spaces, because there are community spaces within the retirement complex where Marie lives, right, so why aren't they just putting teas and coffees on, or coffee mornings, nit and natter?
Speaker 2:And she's the first one there at Big Life every Thursday, yeah, so she can catch up with everybody. I mean, big Life's a lovely space in Hume.
Speaker 1:It is.
Speaker 2:Chairs all set out and obviously Sue, who gets yet another mention. She's the matriarch, isn't she? She's a matriarch.
Speaker 1:She's the bread-and-butter matriarch, isn't she? Let's face it.
Speaker 2:I had a great time there. I could have spent all day there just bouncing from chair to chair and having a good old chinwag with everybody.
Speaker 1:But doesn't it just go to show how important those community spaces are, because Marie's sat there like less than a mile away from Dean and they're both bread and butter members, but they don't know each other and they live on their own. There's so many people living on their own in these places. Isn't it a wonderful thing that we bring them all together, but surely even we can do more to bring them together more and challenge people like the social landlords to do more as well.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely if you'd like to know more about the bread and butter thing and what we get up to, you can find us at team tbbt, on instagram and twitter and tiktok as well, alex tiktok as well tiktok as well on linkedin or online at breadandbutterthingorg.
Speaker 2:And if you have any feedback or thoughts on the podcast or you'd like to come and be our guest, drop us an email at podcast at breadandbutterthingorg.
Speaker 1:Lastly, we're always open to new members at all of our hubs, so if you or someone you know would benefit from our affordable food scheme, you can find your nearest hub at the Become a Member page on the website.
Speaker 2:And please do all the things that podcasts ask you to do Like us and subscribe, Leave us a review, share with your mates and chat about us on social or in the pub. Or in the pub.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, see you next time.
Speaker 3:Bye, thank you.
