"We don't want to be forced to sell our home of nearly 40 years." These were the words of a couple who have battled for two decades for pensions lost when their employer collapsed. They now fear the "perfect storm" of rising energy bills, food prices and inflation could force them from their home of 40 years.
Dennis Kelleher, 74, and his wife Lesley, 72, live in Llanishen. He worked for Cardiff steelworks Allied Steel and Wire (ASW) for 25 years and paid into his pension. But the pension he paid into for years is worth a fraction of what it should be because the firm collapsed before safeguards were put in place. It is having a catastrophic effect on some of those impacted, like Phil Jones.
Cardiff-based ASW, which employed 1,000 people in Cardiff, Belfast and Kent, went bust in 2002. The employees not only lost their jobs but also their pensions. After five years of campaigning, they thought they had won a fight to get 90% of their money. But the deal they were given in 2007 was not linked to inflation, meaning 15 years later they are only getting half of what they expected.
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The campaigners say every £1 they put into their pension in 2002 is now worth 51p.
For Dennis and Lesley they say the current economic climate is the "perfect storm". The couple fostered for years, so Lesley didn't work. When he got his lump sum they used some of that to pay her National Insurance contributions to ensure she received a small pension. It means, despite Dennis having lost thousands, they don't qualify for extra support or benefits. When they compare their financial position to other people their own age, they are worse off. "The system is broken," they say.
Lesley said: "We're independent and that suits us but this really worries us. We don't want to be forced into selling our house. We have been there for nearly 40 years but now we're having to talk about that. We've started using the heating less, I use Aldi for my shopping. I am a good money manager, we don't go on holidays abroad but life is getting tighter and tighter. Our situation will get worse and worse and worse."
They say they are continuing to campaign not just for themselves but for others who are in a worse financial position.
They have no faith that politicians in the UK Government will do anything to help them saying promises come when they are in opposition but are not delivered on when they're in power. That is a repeated message from this group of campaigners. They feel repeated let down and while they say the Senedd and its members have been supportive, nothing comes from the UK Government.
John Benson, from Dinas Powys, who had been one of the leading figures in the campaign for the last 20 years, said the added current economic pressures are causing real desperation among the victims of the scandal. He said the workers were promised they would be paid for all their years of contributions.
Despite years of campaigning, he says this is the hardest period he has faced. For him, council tax has gone up from £646 in 2002 to more than £2,400 this year. There is, he said, a real prospect of pensioners being pushed into poverty.
