A widow aged 72 was left in ‘such a state’ as she found out she had to return to work to pay her mortgage.
The mum was the oldest client SmartWorks, a UK unemployment charity, has helped back into work through both coaching and clothing for interviews.
Birmingham centre manager Ann Powell said the client was “in the midst of bereavement and grief” when she made the shocking discovery.
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Her husband had died during the Covid-19 lockdown, before which their home had been re-mortgaged by their son without her knowledge.
She had been out of work and raising their family for decades, but then had to get back into work to pay the bills each month.
“The oldest person we saw was 72,” explained Ann. “She sadly thought she had finished work, then she lost her husband through Covid, and she found out her son had re-mortgaged the house, her husband had known that and had returned to work to pay for it.
“But she didn’t know. She was in such a state. She was in the midst of bereavement and grief. She had been raising a family, she hadn’t worked for years, a couple of decades even.”
Due to her age, SmartWorks encouraged her to try out volunteering at a charity shop firstly. There, she amazingly went onto become the deputy manager.
When SmartWorks moved from Northfield to Digbeth, it quickly gained a reputation as a service for domestic abuse survivors, but Ann stressed it was very much open to everyone.
Now it has four focus groups: Young people, ethnic minorities, those with disabilities and women in prison. SmartWorks is currently looking for volunteers to help with their service in Birmingham.
