Pensions, pain and passion: The Chronicles of Kelly
“I pulled up and there's a kid there with a balaclava on. I looked at him and he said something and he punched me in the mouth. Unbeknownst to me, he had a monkey wrench, so I got a split lip. Then he dragged my keys off me.”
Kelly as a TV extra in the BBC show, Alma’s Not Normal
Kelly, at 66 years old, has lived through quite a lot. Quick to label herself a ‘WASPI Woman’, her story is one that might feel familiar to many women today. Women who worked hard, dreamed of a peaceful retirement, and then found themselves caught off guard by big, unexpected changes in government policy.
Dreaming of retirement
When Kelly started working at 17, she imagined a relaxed retirement at 60, like many people of her generation. But in 1995, the UK government decided to change the state pension age for women, shifting it from 60 to 65. This change hit Kelly hard—not just financially, but emotionally, too. Around the same time, she was the victim of a traumatic carjacking, which shook her sense of security and left her struggling with both her mental health and her finances.
“I've always had that in my head when I'm 60, I will be retiring. I'd worked since I was 17 because I'd been to college and that was my expectation, and I was lucky working for the GPO, which I did when they changed to British Telecommunications for 34 years and we parted company after I was carjacked and decided no, this isn't something that I want to do anymore.”
Side hustling on the small screen
The hope of a well-earned retirement quickly faded. As the years passed, prices on everything from food to bills kept climbing. Despite having worked her entire life, Kelly found herself working part-time topping up her state pension just to get by. The retirement she’d once pictured, filled with relaxation and freedom, now felt like an unreachable dream. But Kelly isn’t one to sit still and tries to have as much fun whilst she’s earning as possible, “I've been in Happy Valley, Hollyoaks and Alma’s Not Normal as an extra! There I was doing Zumba at the front in one episode!” she laughs.
It’s a community thing
But Kelly didn’t give up. She found strength in her community. Through organisations like Bread and Butter, she was able to ease some of the financial burden. " It's fantastic. And even if there's stuff that I don't eat, I've got my sister, I've got my neighbours here, so there's always somebody to share it with. If you don't know what it is, people will tell you how to cook it. It's so nice because we've got a community plot as well on the allotment. So, we all try and do things within the community.”
Listen to Kelly’s podcast right here
