Poor pensioner Granparents

[gormenghast]

We, my DH and me are going to be quite poor pensioners due to redundancies and other unfortunate circumstances. Our house is ours, but is very small so we can't downsize to release capital.What sort of incomes do other pensioner couples live on and how do you manage? I cook everything from scratch, but even good raw ingredients cost quite a bit.
We would like to take our granddaughter who is used to being very spoiled,on holiday but it would be a real squeeze. Advice please.

Isn't the full pension for a couple £180 ish a week?

You don't need to take your grandchild anywhere to give them a holiday. When I grew up my holidays were staying at my grandmothers house (other side of the same city I lived in). She took me to her local library, park, shopping centre. I loved staying at her house. She had been a sewing teacher and we sewed a dress together after going to buy the fabric. Special times.

You won't need to downsize to release capital, not if you're prepared to go for an equity release scheme. If you did that, you could stay where you are and have a biggish lump sum released from the value of your house. It's a bit like eating your house though. Some of the house's value is taken by the equity release company, so, when it is sold eventually, only fifty per cent or seventy five per cent (or whatever) of what the house fetches, will come your way - the rest goes to the outfit which gave you the loot.
I think it sounds like a good way of getting your hands on funds if you are hard up - especially if your family is doing fine financially and there is no special reason to guard your assets for them to benefit from in the future.
Age UK might be able to give you some pointers about this sort of scheme.