Michelle O’Neill moved to the UK from South Africa and has found herself living in a shared house
In our How I Manage My Money series we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to Melanie O’Neill, 69, who lives in Lancashire. She has one son, aged 39, and a four-year-old grandson. She has a partner but doesn’t live with him. Melanie, who grew up in South Africa, retired from a stressful call centre job but did not work enough years in the UK to qualify for a full state pension. She is worried about the state pension age going up and thinks the triple lock should be maintained. Melanie has struggled with debt and lives in a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).
Monthly budget
My monthly income: State pension, £456.89; pension credit, £451.56; housing benefit, £368.20.
My monthly outgoings: Rent, £433; bank loan repayment, £134; petrol for car, £80; broadband, £33; mobile, £17; life insurance, £17; Amazon Prime; £9; Netflix, £11; Cloud storage, £1.59; over-the-counter medication, £30; road tax, £17; hair care, £50; clothes, £50; gifts, £50; entertainment, £100. Unexpected expenditure can cost £100 a month. I do not pay council tax or utility bills. My son covers my car insurance costs.
I grew up in a middle-class household in South Africa, where we were comfortably off. My father worked as a logistics manager for Unilever, while my mother worked as a receptionist at a biscuit company.
I first lived in the UK from 1978 to 1987, before moving to California with my now ex-husband and our baby son. After our divorce, I was forced to return to South Africa because I had no legal right to live in California.
The second time I moved from South Africa to the UK was in September 2019. I fled South Africa because it is imploding, which is why Donald Trump has established a refugee resettlement scheme for eligible South Africans.
The economy of South Africa is in tatters and it has become one of the world’s most violent countries. Its infrastructure is non-existent. There is high unemployment and often several hours a day without electricity. It is unsustainable and untenable.
Between February 2021 and May 2024, I worked as a call centre agent for a busy UK borough council handling complex enquiries about council tax and benefits. My pay was £23,500 per year. I did not enjoy the job as I felt I was being micromanaged. This wasn’t something I was used to.
In South Africa I ran my own business completing office furniture projects for huge businesses. For the sake of my physical and mental health, it was important that I retired, which I did last year.
I became eligible for the UK state pension at the age of 68, but did not work enough years for the full state pension. My state pension is just over £456 a month and I think the triple lock should be maintained. I also receive pension credit and housing benefit.
I don’t think it is a good idea for the state pension age to rise beyond 68. At this age, most people have reached a stage where they want to take things easy and enjoy what remains of their lives. We have done our part and it’s time to enjoy our grandchildren.
I live in a HMO in Lancashire, paying £433 per month in rent. I am not living in a HMO by choice, but it is well-managed. I just needed an affordable place to live after returning to the UK. There are only three studios in the property for use as single occupancy accommodation.
It is clean, very quiet and suits my budget, though the rent has increased from the £340 a month I was paying when I moved in three years ago. Housing costs in the UK are very high and while I would like better accommodation, it is beyond my reach.
A couple of years before retiring I took out a £17,000 personal loan with Lloyds Bank, which I started repaying at a rate of £500 per month. I also had £3,000 worth of credit card debt with the same bank.
As I hadn’t worked enough years to receive a full state pension, I quickly realised my income would be insufficient to pay back both the personal loan and credit card debt at the rate required over a five-year term. I’d unexpectedly needed to stop working and a dramatic drop in income.
I didn’t miss a single payment but knew I had to seek help before my financial situation worsened and I did start skipping payments.
A year ago I called Lloyds Bank to discuss my concerns with them, and they suggested I speak to Money Wellness. Money Wellness looked at my new lower income and existing expenses and helped me find a way forward.
They suggested a consolidation of my personal loan and credit card and negotiated a much lower and affordable repayment figure of £134 per month with Lloyds Bank on my behalf. It was a good solution and everything was done with professionalism and sensitivity to my situation.
Once the negotiation had been accepted by Lloyds Bank, the new, lower direct debit started to come out of my bank account without any problems. I felt like a ton of bricks had been lifted from my shoulders and impending doom had been averted. I almost wept with relief. In my previous line of work I received daily desperate calls from people crying and saying the bailiff was at their door.
My financial situation has been challenging and I do not have any money in savings accounts or investments. Holidays are a pipedream for me.
While I was working, I was motivated by money. However, since retiring I’ve taken a break from this way of thinking. I’ve been spending afternoons with my grandson who starts school in September.
I have been thinking about launching my own podcast, potentially on South Africa from the eyes of someone who has left or on the dynamics of post-divorce relationships. I guess it would take a while for the podcast to generate an income, but I would need to find out what impact an income from a podcast could have on my eligibility for pension credit.
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