AIBU to wonder why a pensioner struggling financially would not use housing equity?

[Powerbungalow]

I'm not being unsympathetic

Theres a lady on the news at the moment, saying how times are tough and shes only cooking one meal a week - imagine she's eating cold food.

One thing that stood out though "I own my own house and it costs in maintenance" Depending on where she is, would you not get a life time mortgage or sell and rent? She has a big asset, why not use it to have a better life? I know I would.

She may be holding on to it for inheritance, but she didn't say - if so, then can her family help. It just seems totally crazy

No, I can’t see it, can you outline what the massive difference is?

@TheyGrewUp the hardest I have ever worked was when I was working part time in hospitality and also studying for my degree

But that doesn’t count(!) The irony of so many posters on here yelling about us being “mean” to pensioners while they demonstrate such disdain for young people is not lost on me.

It’s hard for anyone to move, let alone someone who is frail or vulnerable in older age, especially if they’ve lived in their property a long time. I’ll be looking to move into a more suitable property in my mid 60’s and this may free up equity then.

Disdain? I am sorry if your over privileged, boomer parents didn't suppprt you at university. Neither of our DC had to work during term time. It wasn't even allowed at their universities.

@StealMySunshining of course nothing that a young person does is relevant or hard.

Don't know about you but I would find 3 days a week partially retired at an office job a lot easier than a Friday close and two weekend split shifts at Lloyds Bar.

(for money to live on not feckless drinking money FYI)

Still not answering the question I see. What is the difference between a young person and a parent working PT? Is one more valuable than the other?

Because both are liable to pay the same rates of NI and taxes.

Weird thing to lie about, unless you aren't in the UK in which case all your thoughts on this UK pensions issue are irrelevant.

p.s my parents are early gen x

Yup. I averaged a 50 hour working week across 4 PT contracts as a postgraduate student. If she could only see me now in my oh-so-important 40 hour a week FT job!

I often worked all weekend as a teenager, so not a single day off in a week. If I retire at 68 I will have worked for 56 years. And I am still able to show empathy for the young people of today who will have it harder than I did and probably retire with less!

Those equity release/reverse mortgages products are a complete ripoff.
If she really wants money from the house she should sell and buy or rent somewhere smaller. Our old neighbour had one, and eventually she had to move in with family (they somehow foreclosed on her) and the company took the house and sold it. House prices had dropped so much back in 2007 I think the year was, and she seemed to be living to a grand old age and was about 90 at the time.

@StealMySunshining I did a microbiology degree so if I wasn't working I was in the lab, running cultures or on placement. I found moving to the "real world" of work a massive change of pace - that I much prefer!

I don't think getting old is easy, but there is only so much sympathy I have for a generation who had it far easier than me or my children ever will.

Why is it that people of our generation can have this empathy but it just seems to evaporate for so many people as soon as they retire? It’s not a personal insult to say that life is harder for a 20 year old today than it was for a 20 year old in 1990 or whatever. You couldn’t pay me to be a 20 year old in today’s world, and I’m not even 40!

Any discussion around pensions descends into this screaming match about who had it harder. I wonder if it’s because the current generation of pensioners know they have had it so good with relatively low effort compared to earlier and later generations?

@MrsCarson the laws around ER were tightened in the 2010s after a load of issues like that.

The main issue with equity release is it means that there may not be anything for your children to inherit and it can make choosing to move into a care facility more complicated.

The "risk" of going into a care home is about 20% if you are over the age of 85 so it is not a guarantee that it will happen, however 1 in 4 people over 85 have some form of in home help even if they are generally able to live independently.

I think some people have this weird idea that the money they have in their house isn't really money.... they don't see it as an asset that contributes their wealth because they're so used to owning their own home and having that security it doesn't enter their mind how fortunate they are compared to those who have always rented. There's a level of entitlement too I think, that their house should be inheritance for their kids, rather than funding their life. Culturally we see older people as on their way out and envisage their property being handed down so their kids can benefit, rather than recognising that just because you're let's say 70 that doesn't mean you don't have potentially 20-30 years left where you still need to pay your way and take care of yourself. There's a dependency on the state I think that is very cultural, like at a certain age you're owed being cared for financially while keeping your wealth to yourself too. Like having your cake and eating it.

@StealMySunshining I think a lot of it comes from the nebulous respect they believe older generations should get.

The generation before the boomers fought WW2 so that was easily given. I respect the elderly as much as any other group, but they are not special simply for not dying yet.

The statistics are SO clear that they had an easier time of it financially but the second a young person struggles they scream IPHONES AVOCADOS as if they didn't have vices in their youth. As if it is remotely possible to navigate the world today without a smart phone. As if an avocado isn't 79p at Aldi.

I get the impression that many of that generation do not view millennials as "real" adults yet. That we are still teenagers who make feckless choices.

Thought that. Why? So that you can lie with impunity?

Me too -

Lie about what? Am I in court?

People name change for privacy reasons - I don’t think it is fair to assume @StealMySunshining is doing it for any malign motivation.

A poster earlier on in this thread said today’s pensioners remember the workhouses! Their perception of time is so strange. My mum is a pensioner and she doesn’t remember the workhouses any more than I would remember the Cuban Missile Crisis!

That poster is so strange. She keeps quoting me and then making bizarre accusations. This is a thread about fiscal policy and pensions, it’s not my personal diary!

@StealMySunshining someone was ranting about no respect for people who stormed the beaches etc on a thread recently - there are literally 6 surviving Dday veterans.

I do wonder if the boomer generation feel like they were part of the war and the work house through stories from their parents and grandparents, but like you said I was born in 92 and don't feel like I was part of the cold war!

You are conflating adults doing a mix of paid and unpaid work (parents) with teens doing part time hours for extra cash or students doing top up work.

My first job was at 12 (when paper rounds still existed), I don’t pretend its anything like holding down part time paid work alongside caring for children any more than the endless part time jobs I had until I started full time work was equivalent to all the unpaid labour involved in childcare blended with paid work.

The current generation of 60 somethings were mostly in full time work by 16, quite a few in full time work at 15 (even after school leaving age rose to 16 - it was the norm to release 15 year olds who had a job to go to). Of the rest most were in full time work at 18. Only a very small percentage of overwhelmingly better off children went to university and deferred full time work until 21 or 22.

@C8H10N4O2 no they weren't we have already posted the figures. Most students are/were not just doing the odd shift for beer money they need the money to actually live.

See I find that so inherently disrespectful: using the sacrifices, stories and difficulties of the previous generations to justify current behaviour is vile in my opinion. The previous generations of pensioners absolutely deserved more than they were even given, they sacrificed so much for the good of future generations, and their name should not be taken in vain.

There is a wealth of difference (pun intended) between a current pensioner born in, say 1950, and their parents born in, say 1920. They cannot be compared and to do so is utterly disrespectful.