Sudden Illness – South Wales

I had a good job but had to give it up when I became unwell and needed a series of operations.

I had to wait so long for my benefits to kick in that we quickly ran out of money, so I started borrowing off a local money lender. They’d been around for years, I knew they weren’t legal, but with so little coming in, who’d lend to us? I couldn’t afford to eat, yet alone get to the hospital.

At first it was a lifeline but the longer it took for my benefits to come through the more loans I had to take out. By the time my benefits came through I was in so much debt that no sooner had I paid the lender, I was having to take out another loan. It got to the point we were trying to live off just £100 a month. I’d hand over all our money for the month and they would hand me back scraps as another loan.

I didn’t want to speak to Stop Loan Sharks Wales but my family convinced me. They were really helpful and helped me realise that there was no way out, they had made it so I could pay off the loan and be free of them.

I told them what had been happened, and they arrested the loan shark and I never had to pay again. All this was just before Christmas so it was the first time in years we could afford a Christmas dinner.

They pleaded guilty so I didn’t have to go to court, it turned out there were loads more people like me. I was worried what would happen if I bumped into them, but they don’t even look at me, they know they did wrong and they don’t want to be in any more trouble.

I can’t believe we lived like we did for so long.