Lisa Walton, with her mum, right, and left, believes the families of Waspi women who have died before getting justice should be able to fight and get compensation in their name
The 68-year-old who lived in Shoeburyness, Southend-on-Sea, initially expected she would get her state pension at 60, but when she discovered she would have to wait until 66, she was forced to carry on working as a carer for elderly people to make ends meet – including working while her husband Melvin wasThe grandmother finally started receiving her state pension at the age of 66, four years after her husband’s death.
With one Waspi woman dying every 13 minutes while waiting for justice, Lisa is incensed at the way people like her mum have been treated and says after the general election, the new government urgently needs to make amends for all the damage and heartache.Ms Brooks, who worked as a carer in an older people’s home for more than 30 years, even had to return to work only two weeks after her husband’s death as she needed the money and had no other source of income.
“My dad was 72 when he died so he was getting his state pension, but my mum wasn’t so she had to keep working as just his state pension wasn’t enough to cover everything,” says Lisa. “Then after he died, she still had to keep working as there was no widow’s allowance or extra support and all she had was her income.
Ms Brooks, who had two children, three grandchildren and a great-grandchild, also looked after her elderly mother who died two years ago at the age of 99. To juggle work and her caring responsibilities, she cut down her days and worked three 12-hour days. “My mum carried on working until she got her state pension and ironically, she was made redundant from the care home the month before she was due to get it. But then she died two years later.Jennifer suddenly collapsed on 8 March this year and was taken to hospital where it was discovered she had suffered a heart issue and she went into respiratory arrest. Fluid then went into her lungs, causing her death.