Activist Peter Tatchell lived on £6,000 a year for decades: he talks to ME & MY MONEY

Human rights activist Peter Tatchell has struggled to make ends meet for most of his life, facing death threats and violence as a result of his work.

The 71-year-old, who has spent his career campaigning for social justice, equality and the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+) people in Britain, has only recently started saving for a pension and has 40 years of spent his life saving for a pension. living in a one-bedroom social flat with an income of £6,000 a year.

He tells Donna Ferguson that when he couldn't afford to heat his house, he wore three sweaters, two pairs of trousers and a wool hat indoors.

However, he says the emotional and psychological benefits of his human rights work far outweigh the physical hardships he has suffered.

He is now director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, which campaigns for victims of inequality and discrimination in Britain and around the world.

What did your parents teach you about money?

To always save for a rainy day. I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, and my family was very poor. Although my father had a reasonably good job working as a mechanic and turner of heavy machinery in an engineering factory, my mother suffered acute life-threatening asthma attacks. So a large part of the family income was spent on doctors and medical bills. Compared to most working class people, we were at the bottom of the list.

I remember coming home from school, going to the cupboards and finding there wasn't much food. Sometimes all I could find was a packet of dried raisins.

Other children received bicycles for their birthday. I have an old toy car. I wore second-hand clothes and everything we had was being repaired or renovated. From the age of seven, I did odd jobs to earn pocket money, such as delivering supermarket brochures door-to-door.

I came to England in 1971, when I was 19, because I was against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War and the draft. If I had stayed in Australia and refused to register for military service, I would have been jailed for two years.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

Yes. For almost forty years I have worked unpaid for human rights. For most of my adult life, I averaged around £6,000 a year doing part-time freelance research and journalism, alongside my unpaid human rights work.

It was tough living on such a small income. I couldn't afford to turn on the central heating. Instead, I would wear three sweaters, two pairs of pants, and a wool hat indoors to stay warm.

Initially I lived in a sitting room and then in a succession of shared houses across London. I always tried to buy cheaper food at the supermarket and I rarely had money to eat out, go to the cinema or the theatre.

But I tried to stay focused on my commitment to social justice and equality. Although the physical hardships were difficult, the emotional and psychological rewards of my human rights work far outweighed the hardships I endured.

I was driven by my passion for my campaigns and the many successes I helped achieve.

This included helping to end the psychiatric profession's designation of homosexuality as a disease and police harassment of the LGBT+ community, plus working with others to secure government funding for the fight against HIV and AIDS. That was very motivating.

Have you ever been given bullshit money?

I was once paid £1,000 to give an hour-long human rights speech for a major company. Of course I would have done it for nothing.

The best financial year of your life?

In 2020, I moved in with my partner, a graphic designer, and for the first time in about three decades, I started sharing my living expenses. We each cut our individual expenses almost in half.

On a mission: Peter protests against Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe in 2003

For police security reasons I have to be extremely secretive about where we live and who my partner is, because I am constantly receiving death threats and plans to kill me, and he is also in danger.

Personally, I have been the victim of more than 300 violent attacks, plus 50 attacks on my home: mainly bottles and bricks through the windows, but also three attempted arson and even a bullet through the letterbox.

What's the most expensive thing you bought for fun?

A plane ticket around the world for £1,080 in 1977, when I was 25.

It allowed me to travel 29,000 miles on any airline to any country. Over the course of a year I went from Britain to the US, Hawaii, Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Australia, Mauritius, South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, the Seychelles, Kenya and then back to Great Britain -Britain.

I left with £800 in my pocket and had £3 left when I landed back at Heathrow. I did some odd jobs, but never paid for one night's stay. It wasn't my original intention, but I ended up sleeping in trees, on beaches, in cemeteries, bus stations and graveyards. Sometimes I lived on the beach and ate wild fruits and fish from the sea.

It strengthened my resourcefulness and resilience, which I had developed during my childhood. Because my mother was so ill and bedridden or in the hospital for much of my childhood, I had to raise my three younger siblings. I was essentially their surrogate mother.

What is your biggest money mistake?

I didn't buy an old four-bedroom Victorian flat near Borough Market in London for £4,000 in the 1970s when I had the chance, because I thought property ownership was bourgeois.

I think that apartment would be worth £2.5 million now. It's one of the biggest regrets of my life. I lived in a very cramped one bedroom flat for 42 years.

Are you saving for a pension or investing in the stock market?

I work as CEO of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, a charity that campaigns for human rights in Britain and supports human rights activists abroad, so I save through my workplace pension scheme. Apart from my pension, I do not invest in the stock market. I'm now 71 and only started saving for retirement a few years ago, but I'm not too worried about whether I'll have enough to live on in retirement.

I am not materialistic or consumerist. Instead, I'm pretty frugal and can get by on the basics. So I could probably survive on the state pension if necessary.

If you were Chancellor, what would you do?

I would impose an annual wealth tax of one percent on the thousand richest Britons. That would generate £8.5 billion every year for the NHS and social care. The very richest would lose nothing, because their wealth grows at an average rate of five to ten percent per year.

Do you give money to charity?

Yes. I mainly donate to human rights causes and help their fundraising efforts. For example, I have done a lot for Ukraine Solidarity, replacing ambulances and medical equipment destroyed by Russian bombing.

What is your number one financial priority?

To have sufficient financial resources to care for myself when I am very old and may need continued support. I would not want to be a financial burden on my partner or other friends and family.

Peter Tatchell is the subject of a Netflix documentary, Hating Peter Tatchell, about his 56 years as a human rights activist.