The pensioners with ‘nowhere else to go’

Pensioners in Oldham say they are ‘devastated’ by the decision to close a charity lunch club that brings elderly people together to fight loneliness.

Age UK Oldham announced they would be closing their clubs in September after struggling to find alternative funding for two years.

Oldham Council extended their support for the club last year to give the charity more time, but have had to axe their funding because of ‘financial pressures’.

The news is a heavy blow on local pensioners, many of whom already feel ‘let down’ by the government’s decision this week to lower the income threshold for winter fuel payments.

More than 200 locals depend on the service, which runs six days a week in different parts of the borough.

“I’m devastated,” said Kath Bailey, 81, in the parking lot of Hope Church in Shaw, where the charity’s Friday lunches take place.

“I’ve been coming for 20 years. It gets you out the house, it’s a really great time.”

Jean Winterbottom said she was ‘gutted’ when she heard the news.

“It’s going to be awful. I come here twice a week. It will be a great loss.”

An ex cotton weaver from Shaw, the 76-year-old said the community ‘meant a lot’ to her.

“You get together with your friends. You make new friends,” Margaret said.

“And the girls what run it are absolutely fabulous.”

One long-term member said: “First the heating payments, now this. They’re either trying to bore us to death or freeze us to death.”

The 87-year-old, who didn’t wish to be named, comes to the Friday club from Uppermill to see old friends in Shaw, where she was born.

“It’s the mere fact that you’ve got people to talk to. I’m sat on my own at home. Most of us are.

“What are we going to do? There’s nowhere else to go.”

Margaret Evans, 80, agreed the decision was ‘wrong’.

“It’s too expensive to go anywhere else,” she said.

Her friend Frank, 90, picks her up and drives her to the lunch clubs.

“This is the only place I come,” Margaret said.

“I can’t walk about because of COPD and a bad heart.”

For many of the elderly attendees, the lunch club is the only chance they have to get out in the week, according to Age UK Oldham volunteers.

Many are widowed and some have limited mobility and so are confined to their homes for most the week.

Age UK Oldham organises transport to and from the venues and helps the pensioners from the cars to their seats.

One volunteer said: “When they’re here, we can often tell if they’ve been upset or something has been bothering them that week.

“They really open up to us. Many of them will have no where to do that without this.”

The lunch clubs also offer a much needed respite for carers and family members.

Tracey from Springlees, regularly looks after her grandmother, who is turning 93 next week.

She told the LDRS: “My grandma feels lonely all the time because she’s used to my grandad being around.

"She tells me ‘I’m just ready to go because there’s nothing for me to do’.

“We worry about her a lot and it gives us peace of mind knowing she can be somewhere for a few hours and socialise and actually have that feeling like she’s got a life.”

Age UK Oldham leader Yvonne Lee said the organisation was doing ‘everything they could’ to save the club, even if it meant reduced services.

She noted that they ‘understood’ Oldham council’s decision ‘in the current economic climate’ and were working together with councillors.

A number of councillors are also trying to arrange community-based fundraisers to save the club, with details yet to be confirmed.

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