Renate Wild (55) lives in poverty: ‘I have had financial problems all my life’

“I’ve had financial problems all my life. It was never enough.” That’s what Renate Wild, mother of two children and widow, says. Wild is one of the 702,000 people who will live in poverty in Switzerland in 2022.

In recent years and decades, the Austrian-born woman has accumulated tens of thousands of francs in tax debts. Her income, consisting of a widow’s pension and a few hundred francs in wages from cleaning work, is seized.

Wild lives on 2,300 francs a month. Every cent above the subsistence level goes directly to the collection agency; the limitations in daily life are serious.

She received the furniture in her apartment in Bischofszell TG as a gift. The clothes are second-hand, Wild looks for 50 percent glue when shopping and meat is available – if at all – every two months. She doesn’t have a car and the 55-year-old never goes on holiday. Even in Switzerland she can rarely afford public transport.

The social exclusion caused by poverty is noticeable. When Wild feels the need to clear her head, she cycles around or enjoys the sun on the small balcony. The last time Wild flew was seven years ago, when her daughter – on her five-year anniversary of sobriety – invited her on holiday to Sardinia with a special offer.

Despite all these hardships, Wild will most likely never be able to pay off her debts.

Couldn’t the now 55-year-old have just put in a little more effort? Was there a lack of commitment and ambition? Do you want to achieve something in life?

People affected by poverty often hear such prejudices, says Aline Masé, head of social policy at Caritas Switzerland. However, Masé emphasizes: “In my view, poverty is a structural problem. And fate strikes again and again.”

Lot.

Renate Wild once reported this in a violent manner. But first things first.

Wild grew up with four brothers in the 3,000-resident community of Kötschach-Mauthen in the Austrian state of Carinthia. Not in poverty, but modestly. “We couldn’t go to the pool. But every now and then there was ice cream. People helped each other. We were satisfied.”

After compulsory education, Wild does an internship in a stationery store, after which she would like to go to Berlin, where her best friend lives. ‘I wanted to break out. Away from our village, where everyone knows everyone, where you marry locally and everything always remains the same.”

Her mother advises her against Berlin and suggests Switzerland as a destination. In 1987, at the age of 19, Wild left his parents’ home and moved to the canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden. She finds a job as a waiter at the Sedel children’s paradise in Herisau.

She meets her future husband Stefan* and unexpectedly becomes pregnant. The wedding in November 1989 took place just four days before the birth of daughter Andrea*. Her husband works as a car painter, Wild takes care of her child and occasionally helps out in her in-laws’ pizzeria.

Stefan* was a “simple, easy-going man, not a braggart.” “We enjoyed life, had a nice apartment and were happy.”

The luck.

It is of manageable duration. Short and intense, if you like.

Renate Wild’s husband is a drug addict. He was already that way when they met, even though Wild, in her youthful naivete, initially noticed nothing of his heroin use. “I thought he drank or smoked weed every now and then. Heroin would never have crossed my mind.”

Stefan* is clean when his daughter is born. Then comes the relapse. Wild regularly receives calls from the hospital when Stefan* is readmitted and has to care for her husband at the same time as Andrea*. At some point she will lose her patience. She is given a syringe and injects herself with heroin. “In desperation, I wanted to know what my husband was giving up his family for.”

The euphoric, addictive effect does not occur. On the contrary. “I’ve been throwing up all evening. Like my body didn’t want anything to do with this devilish stuff.”

What Wild wants after a few years of marriage: a divorce. She can’t handle it anymore. But the young woman, not yet thirty, gives in again. Stefan* enters the methadone program, Wild takes a bottle of opioid from the refrigerator every day and gives it to her husband. Civil life continues, Stefan* comes home around lunchtime, hot food is reliably on the table.

Renate Wild becomes pregnant again. In 1995, son Lukas* was born and from that moment on the young family lived as a foursome. At a certain point, Stefan* no longer comes home at lunchtime as agreed. When his wife asks about it, an apology follows. He has a lot to do in the workshop.

Wild has a bad feeling and this is confirmed. A colleague of her husband smokes heroin. Despite methadone, the next relapse follows. Stefan* takes the syringe again and squanders what little money the family has. Until the heroin shoots through his veins one too many times.

The golden shot.

On December 18, 1997, shortly before midnight, the police rang the doorbell of the Wild family’s apartment. The 33-year-old’s heart stopped beating. Stefan* is dead.

Now Renate Wild, 29, is alone. With an eight-year-old daughter and a two-year-old son. With a minimum income consisting of widow’s and orphan’s pension.

To make matters worse, her in-laws blame her for her husband’s death. Contact is lost and neither Wild nor the children attend the funeral of the mother-in-law – Andrea* and Lukas*’s grandmother. When they are informed of her death, the deceased has already been buried.

“I have never been on welfare, I still have far too much pride for that,” the 55-year-old emphasizes several times in an interview. Wild is looking for a job in service again, working part-time. But the money problems persist.

The financial stress is compounded by the burdens of living as a single mother of two small children. Wild reaches its limits and needs an outlet. She finds relaxation in alcohol. At the age of 29 she became addicted.

The addiction.

She ensures that the young mother’s life slips away completely. Also because she admits: “I have always had somewhat problematic alcohol behavior. I often numbed my stress with alcohol. Except during the two pregnancies, I didn’t drink a drop.”

Wouldn’t she have fallen into total poverty if her husband were still alive? Wild thinks for a moment and then says: “I don’t want to attribute everything to Stefan’s death*. But our lives would certainly have been better without heroin.”

In the years that followed, Renate Wild used the full alcoholic keyboard. She fills wine in Rivella bottles as camouflage, lies to her parents, her siblings, her children and her new partner, drinks 80% straw rum that almost burns her throat, and vegetates for days and weeks.

“Alcohol is from the devil. It’s in every cell. You can’t get it out,” Wild says today. At the same time, she is also strangely grateful for alcohol. He makes her forget. “If I knew today everything I went through back then, I would probably go crazy.”

The consequences are serious: after years of consumption, her own family has had enough and turns away from her. When it comes to her parents’ inheritance in Austria, she is defrauded by her own brothers. “I signed something under the influence of alcohol and then received nothing.” Your life becomes an existential struggle in every area.

At some point, Wild’s partner will also be full. Shortly before her 44th birthday, the life-changing ultimatum arrives. relationship or alcohol. Wild goes crazy and drinks himself into a coma for days. And suddenly she comes to a decision.

The last point.

Wild wants to stop. Almost all alcoholics pursue this goal from time to time, but Wild succeeds. Without a clinic, guided only by your own will. Four days cold turkey, an absolute horror for body and mind. Then the doctor prescribes her a drug that suppresses her urge for alcohol.

The now 55-year-old will never relapse. She has been dry for twelve years now. However, poverty persists and will haunt them throughout their lives.

Wild tells a story that is difficult to bear for people not affected by poverty. A few years ago her front teeth started loosening. Wild has increasing difficulty eating and speaking, but the 55-year-old cannot afford the dentist, so she lends a helping hand and pulls four teeth one after the other herself. “The holes in the teeth looked really stupid. but what do you want to do? »

On the advice of a friend, she contacted Caritas Thurgau after having her teeth pulled. The organization pays for the dental renovation, Wild now has replacement teeth, is relieved and is very grateful to Caritas.

What Wild’s example also shows is how poverty can be inherited. Children of parents affected by poverty have a more difficult start in life, which often determines their future path in education and careers, says Aline Masé, head of social policy at Caritas Switzerland.

Their parents’ precarious financial situation also limits their social development. “Parents must decide whether to spend their money on leisure activities for their children or on food.”

Wild’s daughter Andrea* is not making big leaps financially, but lives independently. It is different for son Lukas*. After training in retail and the military, the young man was unemployed for two years, fell into debt and today has his wages garnished from time to time. Potential employers are now asking about the collection, which further complicates his situation.

Like his mother, the 28-year-old currently lives from hand to mouth. The two help each other and, if necessary, give each other a 20-franc note.

Wild emphasizes that she has done everything possible for her children. Even though there was never enough for holidays or nice clothes, Andrea* and Lukas* were at school on time every day, did their homework together and there was always a small Christmas present. “I mainly saved on myself.”

The children have long been adults, so the 55-year-old could theoretically increase her professional workload. However, after everything that has happened, she lacks energy and motivation. Decades of work as a cleaner have left their mark on the body. “But I often do volunteer work, for example helping the elderly with shopping.”

There are no financial incentives to generate higher income. Because of her debts, Wild will never receive more than the subsistence minimum.

Despite a life full of poverty, she is not unhappy, says Renate Wild at the end of the conversation. You don’t have to forgive her tax debts either. Sometimes, however, the 55-year-old wishes the authorities in Bischofszell would be a little more polite and understanding. Because of her poverty, she is repeatedly treated derogatorily, says Wild, sometimes the phone is hung up or not answered at all.

“It is what it is. Maybe one day I’ll try it again and try to pay off my debt completely.”

*Names changed by editors.