Low pensions mean many might have to sell homes

Thu, 13 Apr 2006

Pensioners struggling to live off their low pensions fear they might have to sell their homes or take in a lodger to make ends meet.

According to a report by the pensions provider Prudential, nearly a quarter of pensioners don't have sufficient funds to retire on.

This means that 19 per cent of pensioners with their own home say they will probably have to sell their home and move to a smaller property to survive.

Another 17 per cent said that they would consider taking a lodger to raise money to supplement their pension.

A further five per cent were considering moving to a cheaper area, and four per cent said they were thinking of fleeing the country altogether, and spending their retirement abroad.

However the majority of pensioners polled by the pensions provider said they didn't want to move and had become attached to their homes.

But the problem was that almost a quarter of those polled said they had inadequate pension funds to cover the whole of their retirement.

For people currently in employment these figures might encourage more to think about their long-term finances and put some money aside for a pension scheme.

For those already struggling to live off their pension, Ali Crossley from the pensions company said that there are other ways that pensioners can make ends meet without selling up or getting a lodger.

"There are ways of using your property to generate income in different ways," she said.

She suggests that pensioners could consider equity release as a means of supplementing their pension income.

In fact recent research by the pensions company and Datamonitor show that already 13 million Brits intend to use their property as a way of supporting their pension fund.

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