A COUPLE say they can’t afford to drive their car even though they both work full time and the wife is “trapped at home”.
Maria Anderson-Cottee, 39, is wheelchair bound due to a spinal condition and husband Nick, 45, is her full time carer.
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Since her condition started six years ago she has had four spinal operations and went into hospital on June 29 for her fifth, which Nick hopes will alleviate some of her pain.
At first Maria suffered from sciatica, but then it was discovered she had a disc which keeps slipping out.
After so many years, Maria now has permanent nerve damage which has led to paralysis in her left leg and “constant pain”.
Nick says she is “confined” to a wheelchair and he, along with their 13-year-old son have become her full-time carers.
Nick told MyLondon: “Maria does have independence but she finds it difficult to be up and about for long periods of time.
“If she is home alone we miss deliveries as she can’t get to the door in time. I have an arrangement with work to work from home for a bit.
“I take her to school and back, cook for her and do work after.”
The couple, who live in Brixton, south London, have been hit by the cost of living crisis and have now had to make a “conscious effort not to use the car,” have stopped buying nice things for their kids and are unable to put any money away for the future.
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Both are in full-time employment, with Nick working for a local authority and Maria as a teaching assistant, and even though they are working they’ve “noticed that things are getting harder”.
Nick said: “We’re not buying as much as we used to. We are buying own brand now most of the time. We are surviving but not as comfortable as before.”
Without the car, the couple are “trapped at home more” which is proving especially problematic for Maria.
“You can go out locally but London isn’t designed for wheelchairs,” Nick explained. “There’s lots on our doorstep but the pavement’s sloped and uneven. Once, crossing the road outside our building Maria almost came out of her wheelchair. If we are not around she is trapped. She has no confidence by herself.”
Nick said he is constantly keeping an eye on the finances and the bank balance ends up at zero each month, meaning they can’t save.
They have stopped going out for meals or having a day out with the kids.
The dad-of-three – two with his ex-wife and the youngest with Maria – had hoped he would be able to provide his eldest son with some support as he heads to university, but now he says the boy will “have to rely on loans”.
Nick said he earns a “standard salary” while Maria is on the “bottom range of the wage spectrum”.
Their income is boosted by Nick’s tax credits on National Insurance as a carer while Maria gets Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
Nick says their combined income is “just enough to live on”.
He worries though that if Maria becomes permanently disabled, he will have to drop out of work as “there is no way we can afford to live on one salary without support and we won’t get support just on my salary”.
Nicke said he believed there should be more support from the government because carers like him are “overlooked”.
He says all the support comes from charities such as Carers UK, which has his “utmost gratitude and support”.
“Without them I wouldn’t even have guessed that I’m a carer,” he said.
According to research from Carers Week charities, Nick is not alone – 212,800 carers in London are worried about their ability to cope financially.
The figures show one in five UK adults are now supporting a relative, close friend or neighbour because of mental ill-health, dementia, disability, or older age, the group of charities (including Carers UK, Age UK, and Oxfam) are calling for a 12-month plan of targeted support, including financial help, for unpaid carers.
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