Susan Mathewson, 64, lives in a women's housing apartment and has had a lifelong struggle with bipolar and depression. She says she went through long-term unemployment despite her background in writing and marketing. Her mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she also lost her brother and partner. 'I just fell down in a heap and I never really recovered from that,' she says. Mathewson says she spent many years trying to find the right medication. 'I've never felt better within myself as a person and I've never felt poorer financially.' She says she wouldn't have been able to survive without the disability pension, but she is still not able to 'be part of the greater community'.

• Poverty and ageing: 'we're swept under the carpet and pushed aside'