UK elderly fourth poorest in EU ( Is this a result of economic policy?)

Thrugelmir

Apparently 1 in 3 pensioners now retires with an outstanding mortgage. In the region of £43,000 average.

Says it all.

chucky

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Apparently 1 in 3 pensioners now retires with an outstanding mortgage. In the region of £43,000 average.

Says it all.

that survey was a bit biased and only includes pensioners who wanted to release equity from one specific firm... it's not all pensioners... maybe not a great reflection on what the true picture is which is much, much lower...

Dean Mirfin, Key Retirement Solutions Group Director, said “Whilst these figures are based on those who have come to Key Retirement Solutions to release equity from their homes, even if the levels are only partly reflective of the true picture for today’s pensioners, the future is looking gloomy for many who will spend their retirement repaying debt. Many look at retirement as a period when we should be free of any debt worries and enjoying our retirement incomes to the full.”

A third of pensioners have outstanding mortgage debt, averaging at £43,069 per head, according to research from equity release specialists Key Retirement Solutions

http://www.totallymoney.com/news/index.php/2009/05/a-third-of-pensioners-still-have-mortgage-debts/

if these figures were accurate, 40% of UK property does not have a mortgage on the property. this means there is a hell of a lot of people out there that are not in debt at all and don't need to sell property and are not forced sellers regardless of unemployment.

nearlynew

Repeat after me.............

My house is my pension
My house is my pension
My house is my pension....................


keep saying it enough and HPI will come to your rescue.

Pobby

Shame annuities are so low. Also it`s a shame that the state pension is pretty miserable.

missile

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

Well I don't know about anybody else but we're looking forward to retirement in the next few years.
My husband has worked in the same job all his life and with a long running final salary pension plus a state pension and less costs than we have now we'll be much better off.
I do know several people of our age group though who are going to need helped out since they did'nt consider old age would ever come a calling and did'nt plan ahead.

That is a little unkind and not accurate in some / many? cases. :mad:

For example, my FiL paid into a money purchase scheme all his working life. Due to ill health, he retired at 62 and died shortly thereafter. His wife gets half of his entitlement which puts her over the minimum so she cannot claim any means tested benefit. On my calculation had he put the cash he "invested" in the pension into savings she would be better off today.

I am pleased you are alright "Jack" :rolleyes:

Pobby

Not everyone is able to plan ahead. Many do not get a company pension and there are many that struggle just to make ends meet as there pay is so poor.

IveSeenTheLight

Slightly off tangent from the topic, but with the baby boomer generation coming up for retirement, could we see the next cycle of property be affected by a dramatic increase in properties becoming available as the baby boomers start to pass on their properties when their time comes to an end.

Seems to me in the next 20-30 years, there could be a massige surge in available properties.
Of course we do not know what the population will be like by then and it could all be irrelevant.

michaels

I think this is the key arguement when thinking about pension provision and comparing payg with saving. Come baby boomer retirement time the balance between productive workers and 'dependents' will have fallen so either workers will have to live off a smaller proportion of their income or dependents including pensioners will have to be relatively worse off. How will this work in practice - I would guess that asset prices of savings will fall relative to prices for consumption items - ie savings will not go as far as hoped for.

Sorry if this is hard to understand as I don't think my explination is very clear but it is all about how a finite amount of real output is shared between those who produce the output and those who are not working.

Perhaps Generali could explain it please?

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

Slightly off tangent from the topic, but with the baby boomer generation coming up for retirement, could we see the next cycle of property be affected by a dramatic increase in properties becoming available as the baby boomers start to pass on their properties when their time comes to an end.

Seems to me in the next 20-30 years, there could be a massige surge in available properties.
Of course we do not know what the population will be like by then and it could all be irrelevant.

lemonjelly

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Its absolutley nothing to do with a gamble on house prices.

1) State pension plus minimum income guarantee is in effect a disincentive to save for the poorest.
2) People have little faith in what should be appropriate pension products because of assorted scandals over the last 25 years.
3) The gap between the richest and the poorest has widened over the last 30 years regardless of politically party in power.
4) Probably needs to be an element of compulsion to save for retirement.
5) Women live longer than men - many who are retired now would have had mixed employment history with few having an occupational pension.

Great post. Can't fault what you say here.

There is a lot of misinformation around regarding the elderly. These heat or eat campaigns are I would argue quite false. The benefits system in the UK has, over the past 10 years been heavily leveraged to be significantly more beneficial towards the over 60's. Any pensioner who says they don't get any state/council support, in all likelihood has masses and masses of cash stashed away ( pension credit has no upper limit on how much savings you can have, so you have to have A LOT to prevent you getting benefits now).

lemonjelly

Thrugelmir wrote: »

Apparently 1 in 3 pensioners now retires with an outstanding mortgage. In the region of £43,000 average.

Says it all.

The over 55's are one of the most indebted sections of our society. Mainly due to the vast array of equity release schemes, and the false promises of Vorderman and the like.

I used to work in a housing association. It was not uncommon to recieve applications from people aged over 50 who had bought their house off the council in the 80's (probably for about £9k) who were now mortgaged beyond the hilt, owing more than the £200k value of their house.

I think it is ridiculous that they've taken advantage of their getting a home so cheap, spent the lot & leveraged for more, & now expect to be rehoused again, paying cheap rent etc etc. There are definately more deserving people out there who should be housed.