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

Banging on about whether people did or did not have certain electrical items in the seventies is fairly pointless, it was 50 years ago. These things were seen as aspirational and luxuries to save for or rent then, nowdays they are generallly affordable (even cheap) every day items acceasible to the majority of people on ordinary incomes. That is just progress and the ability of manufacturers to drove down costs.

Being able to afford a TV or mobile phone with half a weeks wages is great, the average house price being many many multiples of the average annual salary, not so much

Did she have a mangle too? Dead jealous of our friends who had one. No more hand wringing and things dried more quickly!

but apparently that may be your experience but it statistically was uncommon. according to @HairsprayBabe It is you or is it Harmony...

If ya know, ya know😉

@NorthXNorthWest

My nan did indeed have a mangle in the yard
My great grandmother had a huge one in her kitchen.

The point is that viewing current issues purely through the lens of generational "winners" and "losers" oversimplifies the complexity of comparing generational opportunities and experiences. Few people would disagree that there are serious problems which need to be addressed, particularly around housing affordability and funding retirement . But reducing decades of social and economic change to a simple "greedy, heartless, had it all, old oppressors" v "helpless, vulnerable young people" narrative is not a sound or reliable basis for making balanced, proportionate and most importantly, sustainable, policies.

As for getting into the detail, if you tell someone that the experiences that they and those around them lived through wasn't the norm when you weren't actually there, but they were, you shouldn't be surprised when they push back. Statistics are useful for identifying broad trends, but they don't tell the whole story.

For years my mum used a single tub washing machine that had an electric mangle mounted on it, @NorthXNorthWest! Fancy, I know.

Mondays were wash days, and she would fill up the tub, then the laundry went through in a specific order - white sheets first, in the hottest water, then the rest of the whites/lights, working down to the darkest colours and grubbiest things. Everything went through the mangle, then was rinsed in the sink, and finally into the spin dryer to get things dry enough to hang up. It made a massive difference to her life when she finally got an automatic washing machine.

We'd have been jealous of them too.😂

Bath free washing and an electric mangle? Tres fancy! That would have marked you out as positively middle class where I grew up. Next you'll be telling me you had your own washing line, so there was no mad dash for the undersupplied communal ones at the weekend.😂 I can still remember how excited my mum was when she rented her first washing machine. We even got a discount because we rented it from the same place we got the telly from!

Yes, we had our own washing line, @NorthXNorthWest - with one of those poles that you hooked into the middle of it, to make it higher - but not a bought one - one my dad had made.

Ahh - the rented TV - I remember it well - from RadioRentals. Mum and dad went on renting for years, because that was the only way they could get a black and white Tv - mum Disapproved of colour TVs, and only got one when it became impossible to get a B&W one any more - and even then, she turned the colour down on it, so it wasn’t too bright for her.

And we were utterly forbidden to watch ITV - commercial TV was even less acceptable than colour TV. I used to have to sneak into the front room while mum was gardening, so I could watch General Hospital in ITV. All this changed when Channel 4 started, and my mum discovered Countdown. All of a sudden, when she wanted to watch something on commercial TV, it magically became OK.

And we were utterly forbidden to watch ITV

I knew it! Posh!

Back in the day there was no "do you say tea or dinner". "Not allowed to watch ITV" differentiated the Classes 😂

Individual experiences are irrelevant. I never mentioned how my grandparents experienced plumbing. You can repeat that you had an outside loo with as many commenters as you like. That wont change the statistics. 7% of a population having something is unusual, however you slice it. That isn't a personal attack on your experience. You sarcastically quoting my responses turns this into an argument rather than a discussion. Which is why we go round and round in circles.

I did talk about the statistics for my generation. The only reason I mentioned my own generation being cold/hungry in retirement is because that is what this whole entire thread is about. Why don't pensioners sell up/release equity to make their retirement more comfortable? Except my generation is even less likely to have an asset to liquidate.

The main issues with equity release is bad press, the regulations have changed and it is much safer now, and should be considered an option if needed.

No stamp duty for the 60+/retired who are downsizing would be a good move from govt. to encourage people to move out of big homes that are becoming unmanageable, freeing up the housing for families and reducing the stalemate that happens higher up in the housing market.

@NorthXNorthWest I was not allowed to watch ITV as a child too so I don't think it has totally died out!

What nation?

You sarcastically quoting my responses turns this into an argument rather than a discussion, which is why we end up going round and round in circles.

I didn't say, "That may be your experience, but statistically it was uncommon." I brought first hand experience. You brought secondhand details through your grandparents. There are versions of "normal" for that time period, just as there are today. The devil is in the detail.

That, together with your insistence on looking only at aggregated data while dehumanising pensioners, is what turns a debate into an argument, followed by a circular tug of war.

"Statistically, the current generation of pensioners is the wealthiest ever, and the following generations are statistically never likely to see wealth on the same scale."

That depends on your measure of wealth.

Pensioners are not the main reason we are in this position. Statistics only give you the starting point. You then need to investigate the detail if you want to design effective, proportionate and sustainable policies.

Who failed to build enough homes? The post war baby boom years were 1946 to 1964, so today's pressures on funding pensions should hardly have come as a surprise. Who failed to act on decades of data showing an ageing population that would be supported today by a shrinking working age taxpayer base? Who oversaw low levels of housebuilding and bureaucratic planning systems? Who oversaw financial deregulation and cheap credit in a market with too few homes? Who effectively allowed housing to become a commodity rather than primarily somewhere secure and safe to live? And who, rather than addressing those structural problems, increasingly relied on rising house prices and property transactions as an easy source of tax revenue? What about Inefficient public spending - it is easy to spend money to divert attention, it's much harder, requires greater skill, and takes longer to see the payback when you invest sustainably or to give a hand up not just a hand out.

Our system is interconnected. No party gets a pass on poor policy and taking the short term "easy" path. Where we are today is result of decisions taken by successive governments, of all colours, over many decades. What is the point of just looking at who you and some others think are the winners of the game and leaving a broken system in place?

Does the system need rebalancing? Absolutely. But whatever the answers, the reforms need to address the causes, not just the symptoms.

Just saw this on reddit

There would be a glut of £2 million houses on the market there will be bought up by global equity companies.
Prediction it won’t happen

Why would Global Equity companies suddenly start buying £2m houses?

I’m with the commenter ! They can easily draw down on it to pay the land tax /council tax . Just have a flexible overdraft equity release - even after 10 years it would still take out only around £135k . It’s not an ‘earned ‘ asset increase, like say a business - ( which would then involve CgT if sold) it’s the luck of the market . Will reduce their IHT too.

Or a charge could be put on the property and paid once it is sold or inherited. I get that they didn't expect their house to increase in value and it is all academic until they sell it or die, but it has and I am sure they or their beneficiaries won't be reticent about trousering the unearned equity.

It might incentivise people to downsize earlier and we won't have so many elderly people rattling around in large houses they cannot afford to maintain or heat.

This thread basically says there is zero point in paying a mortgage for 30 years because the house will never be yours anyway.

Britain’s downsizing crisis is only getting worse

Rubbish- what it’s saying is you will have roughly £120k ( and that is if you needed to do equity release to pay for it - it’s very high rate too as it’s multi million house in the example given ) you still have equity of £1.8 million plus -

At least you won’t be turfed out on the street by a landlord, and have some control over your housing and future. Don’t underestimate the impact of renting and mo security.

I own a house. I am retired but too young to get the state pension. I will not be taking loans out on my home.

What example?

Just come back to this thread and I am idly wondering if all those so keen to get their older relatives to release equity in their homes would be so keen if they were just a few years away from retirement?
They will say that they will be fine with it. They won't.