Energy and food in particular have become significantly more expensive. bei ntv.de People from all income groups regularly reveal what this means for their everyday lives – how high their income iswhat they spend how much money on and what is left over at the end of the month. Today:
A disability pensioner
Surname: I would like to remain anonymous*
Age: 55 years
Place of residence: Altenkunstadt near Bayreuth
Education: Chemist
Recent Activity: Disability pensioner – rheumatoid arthritis, COPD, diabetes, restless legs, lymphedema in the legs, urinary incontinence, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, etc. force me to be retired. I have a degree of disability of 100 with the characteristics exceptional walking disability and companion, and also a care level of 3. It is hardly possible to stand myself, the rheumatism has spread into my spine.
Gross income: A total of 1,690 euros per month from statutory pension, occupational disability and company pension plus 1,000 euros once a year State nursing allowance. Because of my mental illness, a legal guardian manages my finances. My personal bankruptcy still runs for another year and a half.
Marital status: divorced, one adult daughter
Household net income per month: 1,678 euros without state nursing allowance, which goes towards special expenses such as additional payments for medication and, last year, a propane gas stove. In addition to the medication co-payment, I would like to use the next payment to buy a scooter so that I can be at least a little more mobile.
Monthly rent: 560 euros including operating costs
Monthly heating costs: My gas was turned off three years ago because I couldn’t pay an additional payment of several hundred euros. Since then I have been heating with electric heaters and since last winter also with a propane gas stove, which costs me 60 euros a month during the heating season, or the equivalent of 30 euros a month over the year.
How much these have increased during the energy crisis: Last year my electricity payment was increased from 120 euros to 190 euros. My supervisor then looked for a different tariff for me, and now the discount is 176 euros. I only bought the propane gas oven last year – before that, my apartment was like a freezer.
Monthly electricity costs: 176 euros because I heat with electricity
Further fixed costs per month:
- 370 euros in maintenance to my ex-wife
- 150 euros for incontinence products
- Around 50 euros additional payments for medication
- 40 euros internet + 8 euros streaming
- 18 euros broadcasting fee
- 16 euro cell phone
- 15 euros social station
- 7 euros account management fees
The bottom line is discretionary household income for food, hygiene, leisure time, clothing, vacation, etc.: around 240 euros. I last bought clothes five years ago and my last vacation was 13 years ago.
What I spend on groceries: About 200 euros. Actually, just because of the diabetes, I should pay attention to a balanced diet, i.e. eat more vegetables or fruit, but that’s almost impossible.
How much more I spend on groceries than I did a year ago: 33 to 50 percent – it also happens that there is hardly anything to eat at the end of the month. Then I have to eat jam again and again to prevent hypoglycemia.
Where do I save money due to high inflation: Since I’m immobile, the choice of supermarkets isn’t that big: Lidl or Rewe. If products like sausage are on sale, I buy such goods from time to time. No yogurt for three years. Fruit very rare, vegetables or salad also rare. I leave anything over a euro behind. 50 percent of my diet consists of packet soups and I actually only eat in the evening.
How much I can spend on vacation: 0 euros. I can’t even visit my mother in North Rhine-Westphalia, she’s 90 years old – we talk on the phone, but you can’t compare that with a visit.
How much money is left at the end of the month: NOTHING! I can’t afford to go out or have hobbies, and I even avoid going to the hairdresser. I used to enjoy going to the cinema or rock concerts, but now it’s not possible for me to take part in life, for example going out to eat.
The doctors prescribed an electric wheelchair for me – I got a normal one, which I can hardly use because the rheumatism also affects my wrists. The health insurance company approved an electric pushing aid for me. As long as you have someone to operate the pushing aid, it works reasonably well. As long as my wife was still there, she operated the pushing aid. But that was almost five years ago. Friends? They’re gone too. I often describe my life as solitary confinement: you leave your apartment to go shopping, and that’s it. The only difference is that I didn’t steal anything, hurt or even murder anyone.
The information on these most important income and expenses is based on self-reports and does not claim to be complete.
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My pension is too high to get citizen’s money or food from the food bank. The health insurance company also bases its calculations on the pension and not on the income that is actually available. I am very grateful to the Burgkunstadt social station, without their unbureaucratic help everything would have been much worse.
Wishes for politics: Instead of repeatedly granting yourself a hefty increase in your diet and then having the audacity to grant yourself additional inflation compensation and squandering state money abroad, for example in the form of development aid for China, you should create social compensation. Maybe diets should be calculated based on success. Politicians should remember that they manage citizens’ money and that citizens pay politicians. Some of the politicians who receive a fat diet and special payments every month were not even born when I worked in the shift system and made this state what it once was. Today, many bridges are not passable and there are potholes everywhere, not to mention the risk of accidents for two-wheelers. Even the train is no longer what it used to be – it used to be a flagship of punctuality.
*The name is known to the editors