Marie Collins, 84, from Narborough has received no state pension payments since November after health issues left her unable to fly home from Cyprus
An 84-year-old woman says she has been left “abandoned” and driven to depression after her state pension payments stopped without warning whilst she was recovering from surgery abroad. Marie Collins, who lives in Narborough, Leicestershire, has not received any pension payments since the beginning of November.
She is currently stranded in Cyprus after a fortnight’s holiday back in September turned into months overseas as health complications meant she was issued with a no-fly order by doctors. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been repeatedly contacted by Marie, her niece, and even the British Consulate in Cyprus, yet her payments remain suspended.
“I have not had a penny for nearly four and a half months,” she said. “I’ve got no savings. What am I supposed to live on?” Marie was admitted to hospital with a severe chest infection.
Subsequently, she had a fall and has since undergone physiotherapy, but still has limited use of her hand and “no pressure” in her fingers, leaving her unable to write properly.
Doctors provided letters confirming she was not fit to fly, and both local and specialist medical evidence was sent to the DWP, she said. Despite this, her pension payments stopped at the start of November, reports Leicestershire Live.
Marie says she spent “weeks and weeks” trying to contact its offices by phone, often waiting on hold for hours before being cut off. “Every time I got through to someone different, it felt like they hadn’t read any of the notes,” she said.
“They just kept sending me round in circles.”
With her health deteriorating, Marie asked her niece in Yorkshire to intervene on her behalf. She was told the department could not speak to her niece without power of attorney.
Marie arranged the paperwork for this to be done and sent it by recorded delivery in early January. Tracking confirmed it had arrived, but her niece was later told the department had no record of it and still could not discuss the case.
At one point, Marie said she was unable to make international calls after running out of mobile credit, leaving WhatsApp as her only means of communication. “I could not make calls, I could not receive calls, I could not send texts. I was completely stuck,” she said.
In mid-January, following intervention from the British Consulate in Cyprus, Marie was told she needed to complete a new 12-page state pension form. She was informed that once received, her payments would be reinstated.
Due to her hand injury, Marie struggled to fill in the paperwork and sign it. “I could not write. I had to get help to fill it in. I tried to hold the pen with two hands just to do a signature,” she said.
The completed form was sent on January 23 and tracked as delivered six days later. However, as of early March, no payments have resumed.
Marie says her financial worries have had an effect on her health. When she arrived in Cyprus in September, she weighed nine and a half stone.
She now weighs seven stone. “I am hardly eating. I am in a deep depression,” she said.
Friends in Cyprus have helped her with food and accommodation. Before travelling, Marie had put her home on the market following the death of her long-term companion, who was also elderly and “severely disabled”.
She explained the house was too large for her to manage on her own and she had planned to downsize. On the advice of her estate agent, the property was emptied to facilitate viewings, but it has not sold.
Marie now says she has nowhere permanent to return to in the UK.
Still under medical care and awaiting clearance to fly, Marie fears further delays could leave her stranded if travel becomes disrupted.
“I am not worried about Cyprus,” she said. “I am worried about when they (DWP) are going to start paying me. I am a UK national. I feel totally abandoned.”
The DWP has been asked for comment.