If you're retired but never brought a house do you struggle?

[Poolnoodlepoodle]

Just wondering. I once owned a house but got divorced and couldn't buy again on my single salary. I feel like I'll never manage it again. I always thought when I retired I'd have a paid off house but I don't know if I will. Is it possible to have a decent standard of living if you're still renting??

I'm 57, retired on health grounds, disabled & divorced. I live in a council property, the only way I will ever be able to afford to buy a home again is when my mum passes away as I will inherit half of her house.

Fingers crossed. I was lucky I was moving back to my home state when I applied for places - there are a few scattered around. Not so in Queensland where I lived, though. The nearest was a five-hour round trip from where I lived, so an on-site inspection wasn’t going to happen! (I’d barely got my license and driving that far was not going to happen.)

Maybe I will have to move across the ditch!

Could be!!!

They allow small pets where I live, if that’s any draw …

You mention retirement is 20 years off for you. I honestly think retiree renters are going to be so overwhelmingly common by then that different solutions will have evolved. So few people will have the retirement income to pay market rents, especially in London and the South East. Government/the market will have to have innovated.

I'm in - sign me up

I retired at age 58 as DH qualified for pension credit. We've had a council flat since 1983, and get housing benefit to pay the full cost, and council tax benefit to pay all our council tax. Our pension credit income is enough to cover our needs, it's actually a bit more than our income was before I retired as we only had my low wage back then, and I also qualified for PIP at the same time, which gives us a bit more money and DH gets a carer premium. It's not a lot, but as I said, we were used to living in that much, and know all the local places like community kitchens, social help, cheap utilities and broadband etc so don't pay over the odds for general living costs.

@laet if you retired at 58 because your DH got pension credit (like you have written) and then you were able to receive all the benefits with it, I think that is utterly wrong. Why should you be able to retire at 58 and the state pay for you? Unless you retired on medical grounds that is.

i think that people who currently live in social housing and the house becomes too big as their family move out, they should move out to smaller homes/flats to allow other families to benefit from that house. I think that’s the only way that social housing can work in the future.

housing benefit
or what is the alternative?
living in my car?

i saw a very sobering Miriam margolys programme in australia
women who have to live in vans due to not being able to afford anything else.

@Fretfulmum I had an injury at work so I stopped working. But as the rules were, we would have been able to claim pension credit even if I'd chosen to stop work for any other reason. It just depended on the claimant being over state pension age and being on a low income, and didn't matter what my age was or why I'd stopped work. They have changed the rules now so that both people in a couple need to be over state pension age, not just one. But if we'd been in that position, we would still have been able to get UC. That's what the benefit rules are/were, regardless of what you think is wrong or right. The DWP aren't going to turn down anyone's claim based on what another individual thinks is wrong.

i think that people who currently live in social housing and the house becomes too big as their family move out, they should move out to smaller homes/flats to allow other families to benefit from that house. I think that’s the only way that social housing can work in the future. @Fretfulmum

i think people can rightly refuse to leave, they have assured tenancies and tbh whether a person rents or buys they should not feel they must leave where they are living.

@Willmafrockfit to solve the complex issues on this thread some drastic things are going to have to happen. I would not be surprised at all if legislation changes to ensure renting of social housing meets the number of occupants. Whether that means moving or house sharing. There are not enough homes being built for all those who need to rent social homes in the future. It is very worrying.

@laet it's good that this policy position has now changed.

Muahahahaha!

It is no longer the case now that people can do this. If one of a couple is under pension age now they have to claim Universal credit instead and the younger one would need to look for full time work unless they cannot do so due to illness/ disability or being a care. Things now are very different from some years ago when people used to be able to claim pension credit when the older one turned pension age and get all their rent and council tax paid. Things are much harder now to get these freebies.

Uc for mixed age couples is much less generous than pension credit so depending on your dh's state pension amount you may not have qualified for any UC.