Martin and Norma will presumably receive a State Pension, but that is not a lot. I don't know whether their earnings have been sufficient for them to afford private pensions, but it seems that whatever they have been able to accrue is not sufficient for them to live on, and even in their eighties they still rely on being able to continue to work. In any event, it surely says something about how little the folk world really values this music and those who perform it that two of its most successful and highest-profile performers apparently have not been sufficiently financially rewarded to support themselves in their old age.

Of course they are not alone in this, but these are people who have been at the top of their game for most of their careers, both with international reputations which go beyond the folk world. I find it shocking as well as sad that they should find themselves in this situation.