Life costs Martina S. (name changed) a lot of strength – which she often lacks. The 47-year-old has been suffering from physical and psychological problems for years: she has a chronic fatigue syndrome and has to rest again and again in order to be able to continue. She is plagued by chronic muscle pain, her back is troubling, and she can hardly bend down. She has a severely handicapped ID; the trained office clerk cannot work more than 13 hours a week in her job at a primary school.
She tried it: Because she urgently needed a new car, she worked temporarily at a gas station in the summer, says the 47-year-old, “but I didn’t make it for long.” Her daughter, who is doing an apprenticeship, has moved out in the meantime. She applied for student loans and S. is giving her child benefit. For herself and her 17-year-old son, who is still going to school, there are 450 euros a month to live on: for food, fuel, clothing, school supplies, medication. “If something breaks, I can’t even afford small things,” says S. She recently had a rear-end collision – 4500 euros in damage. The deductible of 300 euros is a disaster for them. Not to mention the dental costs that you will have to pay because bacteria have settled under an implant and the health insurance company does not cover the treatment. In her life there is “all-round stress”, says S. Years of stress that made her sick.
At the age of 16 she met her first husband, the daughter was born, and two years later the son. The marriage broke up because her husband was drinking. When the craftsman came home from work, he went into the cellar and drank. The refrigerator was full of beer and he even took his daughter with him to the pub. When it got worse, she broke up with the alcoholic husband. Both met new partners: Your ex-husband moved in with his new partner, an alcoholic. “The two wanted to take my children away from me so that they could get child benefit,” said S. Her daughter finally moved in with the father and his partner, and he then no longer paid maintenance for the son. In the previous year he threw the daughter out, the partner died, her ex-husband lived on the street. She doesn’t know where. S. met a man 19 years older than him, but this marriage did not go well either. The two were together for eleven years, and he moved out in October. This separation was not amicable either. “I’d rather pay the rent alone than take money from him,” says S. Hartz IV she doesn’t want to apply for. She wants to try to get a full disability pension.
The years with the alcoholic father and the quarrels with the mother’s new husband have also left their mark on the children. Her daughter has ADHD, suffers from depression and has been in a mental hospital for a few months. The son has a social phobia. The presence of many people triggers panic attacks in him. That’s why he takes the bus at half past six every morning because it’s not that full. After school he walks from Gaißach to her apartment in Bad Heilbrunn. He would need a new bed and chests of drawers “because his old furniture is falling apart,” says S. She would want a cordless vacuum cleaner because she can hardly bend down because of her back. There is also a lack of household appliances: pots, pans, laundry basket, coffee machine, a lamp, a laundry basket. For S. it is only enough for the bare essentials.