Homeless Woman Finally Gets The Pension She Was Entitled To

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We like a story with a happy ending. So, when a homeless woman who was dismissed as “crazy” finally proved that she really was owed more than £75,000 by the US government, cheers broke out here at SSHG headquarters.

Apparently, Wanda Witter, who is 80 years old, lived on the streets for 12 years, dragging around three suitcases full of documents that, she claimed, proved she was owed $100,000 in pension payments. “They kept thinking I was crazy, telling me to get rid of the suitcases,” she told the Washington Post.

The saga began when Ms. Witter became unemployed in her late 60s and moved to Washington DC to be near her daughter. But when she received unemployment cheques, she realised they were for the wrong amount, so sent them back marked ‘void’.

Her many letters and phone calls to the government pension department got her nowhere – and when Ms. Witter’s daughter moved away from the city, Ms. Witter slid into homelessness.

But this all changed when a social worker, Julie Turner, got on the case and started going through the meticulously filed documents in the suitcases. “She had all the paperwork there, neatly organised, in order,” says Ms. Turner. “She was right all along. They did owe her all that money.”

The cash has now shown up in Ms. Witter’s account, allowing her to rent a small apartment. She also plans to visit her four daughters, scattered across the country, and meet her grandchildren for the first time.

“She needed economic help, not mental help,” says Ms. Turner.

“That’s part of the problem with homelessness in DC. So many cases are written off as being about mental illness. A lot of times, homelessness really is simply about economics.”

Here in the UK, if you want to challenge a pension decision, you’ll need to take it up with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). First, you need to ask the DWP to reconsider – and this needs to be done within a month of the decision being made.

If you get nowhere, you can then take your case to HM Courts and Tribunal Service; again, though, this needs to be within a month of your challenge being rejected.