"Middle aged woman with sunglasses" by mendhak is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Anna is a 60 year old woman, married to Joe, and together they have a son, Tom, who, with his wife, Dawn, has 3 children.
When she was 55, Anna had to retire early from her job in a school kitchen due to suffering from extremely painful feet from standing all day. She was later diagnosed with arthritis, a condition which has worsened significantly over recent years.
As a consequence, Anna is now becoming increasingly ‘house bound’. Joe is supportive of her but is unwell himself, and, because of this, also no longer works. They are, then, dependent on benefits to survive, and find that they often struggle to pay their bills.
They had both, having worked full time until their illnesses forced them to stop, been looking forward to being able to retire with a decent income from pensions. They had hoped they would be able to continue their yearly holidays to Europe, be able to renovate and extend their house, and to be able to support their son, Tom, and his young family.
This, though, is now a distant dream. Recent changes to the Government pension mean that they can not expect to receive a payment from the Government for several years, and their private pensions are not what was expected due to having to take early retirement, leaving them permanently struggling to make ends meet.
Socially, both Anna and Joe have found it increasingly difficult to get out and about. They used to regularly attend the bowling club, and enjoyed the twice yearly trips with the club, however Anna’s arthritis means that she has been unable to take part for the last 2 years, and so she has lost touch with many of her friends at the club.
She does not see her grandchildren as often as she would like to, and is ashamed that she and Joe often rely on her son and daughter in law (Tom and Dawn) to help them with food.
Joe still manages to go down to the pub occasionally to meet his friends with whom he used to play darts, but, as he often has no money, he is choosing to do so less and less because he can’t afford to buy everyone a drink, something which is a cause of real embarrassment for him. He does, though, buy cheap beer from the supermarkets, and, most nights, will sit and drink a number of cans in front the TV.
Very recently, Anna has felt very isolated. She is supported by Joe, her GP, and Dawn and Tom help her as much as they can, but she finds it very difficult to talk about her arthritis as she doesn’t know any one else her age who has it. Her GP has advised that there are people in the town who are in the same position, and has even suggested that something could probably be done to bring them all together.
On the rare occasion that she does she does manage to get down to town, she struggles as all of the local taxi companies use standard cars which are quite low and very difficult for her to get in and out of. Two years ago the town bus which came into the estate where Anna and Joe live was cut by the bus company to save money after the council cut the funding to the bus company to provide the service.
Despite all of this Anna still regularly attends church, and enjoys taking her grandchildren, however she is even starting to find this a challenge, and is worried that she may have to stop going soon. She is afraid that, if this happens, she will also lose contact with her friends at the church.