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

Thanks to articles online, I think she lives in a small two-bed terrace worth maybe £150k, so I do think her options are limited if she wants to stay in the area. I guess it would be hard to find a lodger, even if you wanted one. I'm not even sure equity release would be an option, depending on the state of the house. She was a carer for her husband, which would have been very difficult indeed, and like many women, no doubt put his needs ahead of her own financial security. By the time he died, she would have needed a period to recover, and perhaps by then, it was too late for her to face moving, even if she could find somewhere cheaper.

It is difficult being in your 70s, and on your own, as costs are not half those of a couple. And as you find your health declining (with no partner to look after you, as she did for her husband), your options are even more limited.

I guess that it's difficult for journalists to find people willing to speak about this, so they return to the same person again and again. Often the examples the bbc chooses are not those that best exemplify the problems people are facing. I think it's sad that some people are so unsympathetic.

The pensioner has had their whole working life in much more favourable financial conditions than the 25 year is likely to ever have.
A salary-housing ratio that seems like fairytale now.

They expect the working population to pay more tax to fund their lack of budgeting to ever save for their older age, whilst also calling them reckless for wanting a working mobile phone.

She should have saved something at some point.

And she isn’t destitute she has a house, a car and £1k a month.

My father is living in the house my parents bought in 1959, just before they married and moved in together. It's his home, where he gardened, cleaned the car, where we were brought up, family visited, where Mum later became frail but they managed together. He knows his neighbours and has a couple of shops within walking distance. Equity release is like handing the ship to the pirates and if he has to leave we'd rather him sell.

Or maybe they were able to fiddle the benefits until husband died and now she is finding what she is entitled to much less?

And perhaps because they can only find this one poor pensioner to talk to the press that most are ok.

Sitting outside a clothes shop is martyr sulking.

Either way she needs to budget better.

But that's the problem isn't it?

How do you define a pensioneer in need because they did make plans that then fell through, v a pensioner who didn't bother plan cos why bother, the state will hold me up? If the answer to that was easy, the problem of benefits on the whole would be sorted.

As people are living longer and longer - or are being kept alive (sometime questionably) longer and longer - this problem is only going to get worse and worse.

Unless we find a decent, compassionate way of managing elder care then the problem is only going to grow.

Firstly equity release is always poor value and a last resort. She could quite easily run out of funds in her early 80s.

Secondly, it's her home, her security, her base to be close to her support network and her friends. Her family memories. Her garden. Everything she values

Downsizing is a possibility but small suitable houses are proportionately more expensive and hard to find. Plus moving costs - stamp duty etc are absurdly high.

A person only gets the full state pension if they have paid NI for at least 35 years it is not just handed out to all and sundry when they reach retirement age. I take it you are referring to private or workplace pension schemes. Let me talk you though my experiences. I was a single parent, despite numerous attempts via the courts and CMS I never got any child support. I was really struggling for money for much of my working life and as sole provider for my child i did not have any spare money to pay into a private pension. I also worked part time because there was no way I could have afforded child care and many part time jobs did not offer pension schemes. So caught between a rock and a hard place. I have known real poverty in my life, literally going without food to feed my child, having bare legs in winter because I could not afford tights. I re-qualified, and got better paid work, and of course did my best to catch up making plans for my old age and I have a small NHS pension and I manage to get by, but I did not pay into a pension for many years simply due to not being able to afford it.

Absolutely this. The “poor me” mentality of today’s pensioners is getting ridiculous now.

I would much rather my taxes were spent in providing additional support to school leavers and graduates, none of whom have had free education, a working health system, a working welfare state, the opportunity to benefit from gold plated pensions, a stable and affordable housing market, and let’s face it, are unlikely to even get a state pension at this rate.

She and her now deceased husband were "able to fiddle the benefits" what makes you think this?

Someone help her claim Attendance Allowance for God's sake.

@frozendaisyI completely agree.

Elder care costs need to be paid for by that generation. I suspect hence the talk of 10% death tax on property.

The pensioner generation as a generation have benefitted from huge unearned wealth in their property. Not their fault or even their acumen, just luck being born right place right time.

Not every pensioner needs elder care.

A lot are looked after by their families.

And say the utopia happens elder care becomes state funded, you know that savvy play the system families will get their burdensome elders shipped off, whilst others in genuine need won’t be able to find places. Offer something free and it’s wide open to abuse.

It will end up as a two-tier system like state and private healthcare as it sort of is, with wealthier pensioners in lovely care homes with qualified staff and lovely surroundings and others packed in like sardines and everyone complaining what the state provides isn’t, because it’s never, enough.

Yes I can understand why older people don’t want to move. But they have to understand that there are consequences to that stance.

Whatever happens it can’t be the youngsters that pay it has to come from the generation who benefits from it.
And this is where you will find a lot of boomers are selfish towards other boomers, they won’t won’t 10% on their estate to pay for other boomers, no that 10% is for their family only (even though they will be dead when they pay it) yet they will expect everyone else to pay for them.

A pensioner has worked their whole life paying tax and NI and won’t work again.

Not all of them - I know my mother hasnt.

It’s just a possible option.

That the dead husband had state pension and disability benefits coming in.
And yes she was his carer for 20 years (which indicates she didn’t work…so she hasn’t paid as much tax and national insurance as some assume, maybe), and now it’s just one state pension, which over 20 years neither of them pondered this possibility?

I'm a pensioner and it may surprise you to learn that I pay income tax, we are not all whining entitled stupid parasites. I pay council tax and VAT too, the only thing I don't pay is NI and guess what I don't moan and think "poor me". Older people are as disparate a group as any other demographic. For what it's worth I think that young people today have a really raw deal and given that they are the country's future I want to see real and positive help for them. How do i know this? I have friends in age groups other than my own who have teenage/young adult children and I hope I have an understanding of the challenges they face. The ageism on this thread and in MN in general is really unpleasant at times.

I would expect your mother is the exception rather than the rule, my mum worked all her adult life until retirement age as did all my friend's mums and so did I and all my female friends. Of course we can only relate to our own lives but all I have known is working and having a work ethic

It's just speculation on your part and rather unpleasant too

Interesting Reddit has a thread on her too

They are not as ...kind as here

www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/s/wf2Dr3knKV

It doesn’t surprise me to learn that you pay income tax. With the vast amount of pension provision that today’s pensioners have they should be paying more taxes in my view. And there is a big difference between “ageism” and just basic reality. Younger people are sick and tired of so much of the rhetoric being focused upon “poor” pensioners when in the vast majority of cases pensioners have more money and assets than any other demographic. That is a statistical fact. And a lot of it was simply down to chance, yet we are constantly told how hard they’ve all worked as if the rest of us are sitting about twiddling our thumbs.

They make a good point about her driving and petrol... I spend about £60 a week on petrol and that gets me to Devon and back from the Midlands (don't ask...). That's a 450 mile round trip plus doing my local shopping and going to the post office 2-3x per week.

Where the hell is she shopping and why is she driving so much?? Or what is she driving and why hasn't she noticed the ridiculous fuel leak that she must have.

My neighbour has just moved to a bungalow for the same price as her own house, so it will have cost her to move. I assume because of upkeep and heating.
There are cheaper/smaller bungalows but she still wanted lots of bedrooms (her family don’t stay but she forever stays in hope clearly).

All that woman’s money is spent on petrol. I’m out quite a bit and I put in £40 every 2 weeks. She should stop driving and get a big shop delivered to fill her cupboards and reduce the amount of times she needs to drive out of the village.
Shes the equivalent of my BIL complaining about being skint and buying takeaway 4 nights in a week.

That woman sounds like my own mother, poor me, I have nothing, nobody gives me anything. Wailing and balling about how hard it is to be a pensioner when she never worked a day in her bloody life. We are in Ireland so not sure the rules there but she gets almost the full pension here despite working maybe 3 months out of her 80 years. No mortgage as she inherited a house valued at circa 800keuro. She could sell and downside but nooooo her 'memoriessssssssssss' with a wail. It is not that, it is because the ONLY control the old crone has left is 'inheritance and the will' and while my siblings are sticking around purely for a payout I have a feeling she CANT sell cos then we will all know the stipulations of her getting said house and thats her control GONE.

What I would not give to be an (Irish) pensioner with no mortgage or other bills bar heating etc which all of us have to pay, getting I think around approx 288euro per week all for me myself and I. Also theres a living alone benefit to claim and other things PLUS you can rent out your rooms that you dont need especially in my mothers case as nobody visits her anymore. That is a seriously bigger amount than I as a single parent with a mortgage, kids and a full time job are pulling in.

Cry me a fucking river.

I sold my parents house. It was hard, but if I had to sell my marital home, the one I have spent 39 years in, it will be harder than selling one I never lived in. My parents had 5 different homes. My husband and I plus our children have had one.

Empathy isn't your strong long then?

If the elderly person has a spare room they can rent this out up to approx 7K per year tax free

If elderly person has health issues she can apply for attendance allowance, which is not means tested

Sell & downsize

Apply for over 60s discounts & benefits