Julie O’Connor, 62, a retired local government worker living in London, is another gran who is putting her hand in her pocket to support the generations below her. Rising inflation and interest rates, soaring bills, mortgages and rents are all taking their toll.
Young families across the country have been pushed to the brink due to the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis. The answer is simple: Mary, of Bromley, South-East London, has two daughters and four grandchildren aged between 15 and 23 - and she is the CEO of her very own ‘bank of gran’. Still, it’s not enough to keep pace with her outgoings, which are well in excess of £40,000 a year.įor someone living modestly and alone, who watches the price of milk and frets about the heating, you might be wondering what on earth could be causing such a swift departure of funds. Her late husband, an ex-policeman, left her £100,000 when he died three-and-a -half years ago, and she has a comfortable annual income, from a pension and a rental property. I don’t have many needs.’ It’s not that Mary doesn’t have the money to pay for heating. ‘I sit next to my favourite radiator, and I am living very frugally. ‘I’ve bought an electric heated pad, which I put on my knees under a blanket,’ laughs Mary, a widow and retired secretary. The energy crisis and concern for her outgoings means she has just two of eight radiators on in her three-storey townhouse.
The time is approaching six o’clock and Mary Bartle, 84, is settling in for the evening as the temperature plummets.
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