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

I would say bar central London, there are plenty of options available for downsizing. People just don’t want to. One of my friend’s in-laws were considering downsizing but decided to stay put in the end because they needed the number of bedrooms they currently have as anything less would not do. They have seven bedrooms.

The ‘poor’ pensioner on the news was in fact a property owner without a mortgage and ran a car too. I just got the impression she couldn’t be bothered to cook.

Is late 50s young?

I like to think I am practical more than sentimental - if its a choice be eating/heating and owning something I cannot afford the upkeep on, come on! Really??

Another option is a lodger.

Lots of women are finding themselves in a situation where the husband has fucked off for a younger model and they're royally screwed in the divorce. I bet there are lots of ladies age 40 and older who would find being a lodger in a house with another woman very appealing.

Also things like :
Renting a drive.
Renting their garage.

It doesn't have to be releasing equity. KO

Well fine, but don’t moan about how poor you are then. My parents didn’t particularly want to move in their late 70s either, but they were sensible and realised it was the best option for them.

She’s 77, she could easily live another 20 years. I expect she’s scared she’ll be ripped off by conmen, or just as likely by legitimate providers of things like equity release schemes. Clearly she can’t afford the unbiased, impartial financial advice she needs to make an educated decision on which financial risks are in her best interests in this economic climate, so she is opting to take the only measures she understands - stay where she has shelter and feels safe, and eke out what small income she has without risking her shelter and security.

I understand the draw of wanting to leave your child an inheritance but as a child id be embarrassed and ashamed of myself if my elderly parent was hungry and cold just so I potentially inherited a bigger asset assuming care home fees didnt eat it all up anyway.

@Powerbungalow Is this the woman who lives in a village in Northamptonshire?

She's become a bit of a media regular, going back some years. Always saying the same thing.

She isn't as hard up as she says. Spends £50 a week on fuel. How many miles is she doing a week? It sounds a huge amount of money.

Her late H was in the Army and she will have some of his pension plus her state pension and/ or pension credit.

Many pensioners live quite well on that amount- my mum in her 90s whose overheads for council tax and utilities are quite high.

The subtext of this woman in the media is she has never saved and even now is not spending wisely if she's using £50 a week on fuel just for shopping trips.

Don't take everything you read or see on TV at face value.

she spends £50 a week on fuel.
I live in a village , I don't go shopping daily, nearest shops are 5 miles each way.
I am on a pension.
I get over 50mpg with my car.

What on earth is she doing?

well thats me told. what a horrible lack of empathy there is on this thread. I just hope none of those people are faced with having to sell up a home just to be able to survive later on in their life because really I wouldnt wish that on anyone not even to those responding so negatively to my post.

All that is completely valid.

But if you can't feed yourself because those memories are costing you all of your money then you either have to let them go or accept you're going to be cold and hungry.

You wouldn't sit there with a cheque for £100k because it's the last thing a loved one ever gave you and it's got their signature on which is all you've got left of them, while you can't afford to eat and heat your home. That's madness.

A house is the same, yes it's more emotional but life is for the living. Choosing to starve yourself because memories is batshit.

She doesn't need to starve herself.

It's exaggerated and she's made a career out of talking about her lack of money, for years and years.

She's been on the media for a very long time, but there is help out there and it's ridiculous to say she can't afford to put the oven on when she's spending £50 a WEEK on car fuel.

I've had to sell the home I lost my dad in.

It was very upsetting and emotional.

But I couldn't afford to keep it. If I'd kept it because memories I would be in a similar position to the lady in the OP.

All those wealthy, home owning boomers..just tell them what to do OP. Maybe she's an intelligent old old person who realises that equity release is a big fat con. Old at 58/59 is it? - well hopefully you will reach that age and see things differently.

I'd rather we talked about these things, than pensioners starve because they want to leave an inheritance for their children

But thats just me eh?

We moved MIL from her owned home up north to a retirement flat (down south) which has support, a ready made social scene and very near us, she now sees her (only) grandchildren all the time.

Service charge isn’t unmanageable and it was half the price of her previous, increasingly unmanageable family home.

So it’s possible, even as a single (she was a little younger than you when she moved but not much).
Regardless of how much it cost, we don’t look at her money as inheritance, it was a much better move.

And no social housing isn’t for homeowners, of course it’s not. You have a huge asset to play with.

We aren’t worried about selling it as and when, it’s more important that her later life is better quality.

In my case it's partly inertia about getting the place ready to sell. I know I need to move, both the stairs and the garden are getting very hard for me to manage.

At 70 and arthritic, the prospect of a massive decluttering exercise, endless trips to the tip and getting a decorator in to make the house less shabby is really daunting. Every time I think about it, it seems like a bigger problem than it did last time I thought about it. In the last month, all I've managed to do is get rid of around 100 books and 2 sacks of crap. I can't even get into my loft, because it has a very awkward access and a steeply sloping roof, so you need to crawl the first few feet and I can't put any weight on one of my knees!

It's also hard to find something suitable for me to move to. I don't really want to leave the town where I've lived for nearly 40 years to somewhere where I won't know anyone, and bungalows here are rare things and are consequently at a premium. Finding one that would be affordable after moving costs appears to be impossible.

I've also considered flats, but it would have to be ground floor or in a block with a lift, and they seem to be very rare here (it's a historic town, so no tower blocks!). And then there are the service charges, many of which are (imo) exorbitant. They seem to be around £3k for little more than cleaning the common areas and "grounds maintenance", even when the grounds are just a car park.

A flat in a block for older people here has a service charge of £6k pa, plus ground rent on top. I'd have around £150-180k of equity after fees and costs, but the income from that wouldn't leave me with much more to live on after paying those charges.

It's bloody hard to leave a place you've lived in for almost half your life, especially when it's the last place you shared with a much loved partner.

Its called a discussion, I'm late 50s so not exactly an avocado eating millennial, but if she doesnt want to move to release funds so she can live, and she has an asset that she has options - don't moan about how hard life is?

Around 15% of pensioners are below the poverty line.
Around 30% are millionaires, 90% of personal wealth for pension aged people is tied up in residential housing.
The solution is to move, and it doesn't really matter if it is "hard" life doesn't owe you becoming easier simply because you are old.
I get that lots of people want to "leave something" for the next generation, but that's not a right. The sensible thing to do is to downsize before you are "too old" to manage it.

Look, just do some googling and you will find her history and see it's not quite like you think.

Unlike many pensioners who are living ONLY on a state pension she ought to have other assets from her late husband's pension. He had one- it's in other features on her.

There is nothing about if she has children and is leaving her house to them- that's your imagination.

I'm not talking about one woman.

My thoughts were around why do people continue to hold onto what is essentially an asset, not matter the emotions attached to it, and complain about not being able to eat or heat?

I mean, that’s not what the article says. She needs a car because she suffers from arthritis and can’t walk far.

@StealMySunshining

Downsizing really isnt that easy for everyone. We don't all live in large detached/semis worth in excess of £500k

I live in a bog standard 3 bed terrace, similar houses in the surrounding streets are on the market for approx £200- 225k.
Retirement flats are on the market for £200k plus. Financially it doesn't work for me.
If my health deteriorated further, as I have a downstairs bathroom, all I would need to stay in my home is a stair lift.
It makes no sense to move from a home where I have lived for over 30 years, where I am part of the community and have all the facilities I need on my doorstep.

I remember my nan being moved from the home she had rented all her married life. She hated the newer, nicer flat because she was taken out of her community, her family was no longer 10 mins walk away but a bus trip. She needed help with all sorts of things she didnt need before like shopping and getting to the GP/hospital. She was isolated, lonely and miserable as hell.
Its not just about old people being stubborn

@op "Why do people continue to hold onto what is essentially an asset, not matter the emotions attached to it, and complain about not being able to eat or heat?"

Presumably because they feel like they worked hard for it and want to keep it forever regardless of how the world has changed around them. Some people feel that once you are old life should never be hard again, even though that's not how life works. It may not be "fair" but there is no difference between a 20 something and a 70 something having a hard time financially (through external factors) - yet the younger generation are constantly told to just suck it up and get on with it.

All depends what newspaper you saw in this sounds like a daily mail story who likes to perpetuate this myth about pensioners struggling on bread and margarine. (With their glorious triple lock and free transport.)