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I’m homeless, sofa-surfing and using food banks this Christmas after horror car crash ruined my life
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KNOCKING on her cousin's front door Wendy Fallon-Williams, 66, is greeted with a smile and a hug.
After a quick catch up, her relative offers Wendy pillows, sheets and a duvet so she can make a bed on the living room sofa.
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In return Wendy grabs a bag of food and hands it to her cousin as a thank you.
The retired gran-of-eight and great grandmother of six isn't visiting for a pre-Christmas holiday.
At 66 she’s homeless, sofa surfing for a bed, un-retired, accepting any job she can find, and only able to eat and return people’s kindness using food bank groceries.
“I’m a homeless grey rinse grafter. I have had to un-retire. I never imagined I’d be this skint in my sixties.
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“The cost-of-living crisis, rising prices and being hit by a car has left me without a house, I have to rely on sofa surfing and living off less than a one hundred quid a week to survive”, Wendy tells The Sun.
“I have to work part-time or casually. It’s the only way I can save enough money for a deposit not on a house to buy but simply a single room to rent in a shared house.
“I am reliant on food bank parcels just to eat. But whenever I find casual work I smile and focus only on the job,” she says.
“I am not complaining. I will do whatever it takes to not be a burden. I don’t have a bed for Christmas.
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“This wasn’t how I planned or imagined I’d be spending my late sixties. I have gone from being financially secure to a homeless nan begging for handouts. It’s a grim reality.”
Former interior decorator Wendy, 66, lives in Morden, Wilts., and is a mum to two boys aged 50 and 46, and a daughter who tragically passed away at the age of 40.
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She is a gran of eight children aged between 30 and ten years old and a proud great grandmother of six children aged between two and eight.
“I retired a decade ago when I was 56. I thought I’d never have to work again or worry about money. Now everything has changed,” she says..
“The only way I can survive is work until I die. That’s just to afford a room in a shared house. That’s my goal for 2025. I never thought I’d be living this way at the age of 66.
“I went from being financially secure with two homes to living on £81 a week. I still haven’t been broken though.”
“There are no holidays, world cruises or long lunches in my future. Unretiring is my life now.”
“I know it's grim but I have to find a positive way to move forward. That’s why I work and refuse to give up. I won’t be a burden. I don't want sympathy.”
Wendy is just one of the 900,000 Britons aged over 70 which a Retirement Villages Group report reveals are heading back to work or staying longer in part- or full-time work since the pandemic and cost of living crisis.
The Office of National Statistics reveals there are now more people aged fifty and older in work or looking for work than ever before.
According to the ONS between April and June 2022, the number of people aged 65 years and over in employment increased by a record 173,000 to a staggering 1.468 million making it a record.
While a 2023 report by Rest Less, a digital community platform for the over fifties says the latest figures show 426,000 or men aged 66 and older are now working part time and 355,000 women aged 66 and over are now back in part-time employment.
That means Wendy is just one of the almost a quarter or 22% of women who are being forced to work just to keep a roof over their head.
“I worked all my life. I did everything right. It is why I am sharing my story,” says Wendy.
“My first marriage ended in divorce in 1985 when I was 27.
“I was a single mum and running a successful interior design business in Worcestershire.
After remarrying Wendy was widowed when her husband tragically died of a heart attack in 1998.
“Like everyone my age I was taught to work hard, save money and be house proud. I had a three-bedroom home, and I felt secure. I didn't stop working.” she says.
“I was meticulous about planning for my retirement. My house would mean I had equity available for release in my old age.
“I knew I would have a state pension and I was working hard on my business. I have always been entrepreneurial,” she says.
“I had planned to retire to Turkey and bought a two-bedroom bolthouse there for £28,000. That’s when property was cheap in that country."
After retiring Wendy rented out her three-bedroom home in England and began a new life in her Turkish bolt hole.
“The cost of living there is very cheap. I had lovely friends. I was working part-time as a travel agent. It was perfect and always sunny,” she says.
“I felt financially secure. I never imagined I would be spending winter 2024 homeless in England using food banks,”
In September 2019 Wendy’s life changed when she was hit by an uninsured drunk driver on the road near her Turkish home.
“My right leg was shattered, an artery in the leg was severed and there were five serious breaks.
“ When I arrived at the hospital, the ambulance office and doctors’ thought I was dead.” she says.
Wendy had to undergo multiple surgeries to save her leg and was unable to walk or leave hospital for twelve months.
“As the driver had been drunk and was not insured, I had no way of making a claim against him.
That meant Wendy was faced with staggering hospital bills in Turkey.
“I was finally released from the Turkish hospital in September 2020 a year after the accident and my medical bill was £150,000.
“Covid had hit, which meant I couldn’t leave Turkey to come back home for NHS rehab, I was forced to spend even more money to learn to walk again,” she says.
“During rehab I fell and broke my arm, and it needed surgery to insert a plate. All I could think about was getting back to England and finding work.
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Wendy was finally able to return to Moredon in October 2021 and was still reliant on a walking stick , had minimal use of her right arm and no income.
“The only way I could pay my medical bills was to sell my home in Turkey for £28,000 and my three-bedroom house here for £200,000.
“I was left with barely £5,000 to my name and began working as a carer for my elderly mother,” she says,
“I was so devastated my financial future was in ruins. I could barely walk and was in constant pain, but I knew I had to rebuild my life and my finances.
“I was surviving on my £81 a week carers allowance. My mum is 93 (check) and lives with dementia. She needs constant care,” she says.
“I was living at mum's care for her. She lives in a two-bedroom council house.
Wendy says the local council refused to let her stay permanently because her mother’s home was part of a specialist elder community.
“I was saving up for a room deposit in a shared house, caring for mum and recovering from my own debilitating injuries when I learnt i couldn't stay at my mums,” she says,
“I have no money left for hotels or a deposit. My children have their own children and live in small homes. I am now sofa surfing and homeless.
“I have deferred my state pension for a year because I am trying to get back on my feet and have some sort of house share or accommodation first.
“I must try and find jobs that I can do given my life altering injuries caused by the drunk driver. I am doing whatever it takes.
Wendy does try to find work where she can, working as a TV extra, babysitting or basic phone admin just to be able to buy food and pay for her travel.
“I do not have a car. I rely on my bus pass. Some weeks I only have £81 and from week to week I never know where I am going to be living.
“Each week I apply for dozens of part-time and casual jobs. When I have to explain I do not have a permanent address people look at me and are shocked,” she says.
“I have put myself on a list for council accommodation but I am not considered a priority.
“The cost of living and grocery prices means I survive on food bank parcels. I am not ashamed to admit at 66 that's what I must do.
“ I know other retirees are just like me,”
“I am still doing my online travel agent work.. I hate being a burden on anyone.
“If it weren’t for friends and relatives offering a sofa to sleep on, I’d be sleeping rough or in a shelter.
“I wake up each morning and pack away the blankets and pillows. I then start sending out resumes., I go to whatever job I can find.
“I can only repay my friends or relatives by babysitting, helping around their house, helping with admin or using my reorganisation skills if they need kitchens or bedrooms sorted.
“I am a regular visitor to the food bank. I still need therapy for my leg and arm. “There are some days I want to end it all. But I refuse to let that happen.
“I do whatever job I can find. I am just grateful I am still alive. I am grateful I have the will to find work.
“I know wherever I get work I can be a valuable asset. I ran my own business for 27 years. I can teach other staff so many things.
“I haven’t bought new clothes since the accident. I had to sell everything I owned. I am starting again at 66.
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“I am a grey rinse after who is refusing to give up. There are so many nights I cry myself to sleep. These days I am grateful for any work I can find and simply having somewhere to sleep.
“I don’t want sympathy, I want a job I can use to buy food and get a small room to rent.”
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