500,000 pensioners pay the price for the indebted.

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Radiantsoul wrote: »

A lot of pensionners have probably benefitted from rapidly rising house prices though.

How so ?, unless they have used an equity release scheme, which I would guess is a very small amount of people. And why, if you or your partner have worked hard all their life and have a small bungalow that they own, should you sell and move to an even smaller place in a bad area to release some funds ?, just to bailout the indebted. Something is not quite right with that in my opinion.

PasturesNew

dealsearcher wrote: »

It is not only pensioners. At least pensioners have their pension.

.... have 'too much' in savings to claim benefit and are totally reliant on their savings.

So much for being prudent!

I'm sort of in this lot. I sold my house and the interest used to be enough to pay the rent, bills, basic foods and a £5 takeaway/month. That was my "safety net" in case I wasn't getting any actual earnings.

Now that's all but gone. Now my interest probably pays (I daren't look) about 1/2 of my rent, leaving me to earn enough to top that up and pay the bills/eat.

On the income front, my income comes from the advertising industry and therefore relies on people feeling affluent. As a result, my income from self-employment has dropped by 50%. The only "bonus" is I am mostly paid in $, so with the exchange rate changes it does squeeze a few extra quid out of the pot.

On Monday of this week, it was actually looking like my income might have dropped to £6k/year, so that would have meant dipping into my house money to live.... luckily by yesterday it had recovered a bit. But with savings, obviously, there are no top up benefits.... you really have to be careful with what you've got. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Radiantsoul

ad9898 wrote: »

How so ?, unless they have used an equity release scheme, which I would guess is a very small amount of people. And why, if you or your partner have worked hard all their life and have a small bungalow that they own, should you sell and move to an even smaller place in a bad area to release some funds ?, just to bailout the indebted. Something is not quite right with that in my opinion.

Well you are talking about house prices doubling over the past four years which is presumably a decent windfall gain for people who could look to exit the property market. I am not sure they are morally entitled to that gain.

I am not suggesting they should have to sell, but if not they may need to accept they have to make sacrifices to stay in a house that is now beyond their means.

It strikes me as a little odd for asset rich, cash poor people to plead poverty. Generally I think pensioners have done rather well with low inflation, rising asset prices and a bouyant stock market for the past decade.

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PasturesNew wrote: »

I'm sort of in this lot. I sold my house and the interest used to be enough to pay the rent, bills, basic foods and a £5 takeaway/month. That was my "safety net" in case I wasn't getting any actual earnings.

Now that's all but gone. Now my interest probably pays (I daren't look) about 1/2 of my rent, leaving me to earn enough to top that up and pay the bills/eat.

On the income front, my income comes from the advertising industry and therefore relies on people feeling affluent. As a result, my income from self-employment has dropped by 50%. The only "bonus" is I am mostly paid in $, so with the exchange rate changes it does squeeze a few extra quid out of the pot.

On Monday of this week, it was actually looking like my income might have dropped to £6k/year, so that would have meant dipping into my house money to live.... luckily by yesterday it had recovered a bit. But with savings, obviously, there are no top up benefits.... you really have to be careful with what you've got. Once it's gone, it's gone.

The bottom line to me is PN, the government want you to spend your savings thereby redistributing your money to the fec kless. This is what all this is about, they know there are billions of pounds out there that people are sitting on, the government want this money 'out in the open', they want it spent. And doing what they have done to you and millions of others is a like a back door to increasing the money supply.

Radiantsoul

beecher wrote: »

Many want to remain living in the house they have lived in for decades. Many live in strong communities with good neighbours and the upheaval of moving would be too great for them. Why should they sell up?

If your house is your main asset then you need to be realistic. It seems odd to want to live a cash poor life in order to die asset rich.
The wider problem is people don't have sufficient or diverse enough assets. Living off the £10k you have saved in the bank isn't going to work at 0% interest or 5% interest. To have an investment income of £15k a year even at 5% requires a £300k savings pool. I am sure there are some pensionners with this level of savings, but not so many.

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Radiantsoul wrote: »

Well you are talking about house prices doubling over the past four years which is presumably a decent windfall gain for people who could look to exit the property market. I am not sure they are morally entitled to that gain.

I am not suggesting they should have to sell, but if not they may need to accept they have to make sacrifices to stay in a house that is now beyond their means.

It strikes me as a little odd for asset rich, cash poor people to plead poverty. Generally I think pensioners have done rather well with low inflation, rising asset prices and a bouyant stock market for the past decade.

You have your opinion, and I respect that, however I disagree with almost every word of this post.

SingleSue

It would have taken my father nearly 20 years to earn that, let alone save it!

SouthCoast

I live in pensioner second/holiday home land. I suspect that a lot were purchased with MEW.
The next 12 months will be interesting.

jay3_2

Radiantsoul wrote: »

If your house is your main asset then you need to be realistic. It seems odd to want to live a cash poor life in order to die asset rich.
The wider problem is people don't have sufficient or diverse enough assets. Living off the £10k you have saved in the bank isn't going to work at 0% interest or 5% interest. To have an investment income of £15k a year even at 5% requires a £300k savings pool. I am sure there are some pensionners with this level of savings, but not so many.

Good point. Also, capital gains on your principal residence are tax free. I wish I could say the same for my earned income...

Old_Slaphead

Radiantsoul wrote: »

It strikes me as a little odd for asset rich, cash poor people to plead poverty. Generally I think pensioners have done rather well with low inflation, rising asset prices and a bouyant stock market for the past decade.

Where's this buoyant stockmarket then ? It's well below the level it was when Labour took over!

Rising asset prices have only occurred due to the greed of government, bankers and the 'I want it all and I want it now and I don't want to pay for it' consumers.