Debt warning for over 55s
Community
People over the age of 55 have been warned about increasing debts.
Older people in Milton Keynes contacting leading debt charity Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) for help last year owed an average of £22,945 on credit cards, loans and other unsecured debts, according to newly released figures.
The charity says that the situation may lead to increasing numbers of retired homeowners considering releasing equity from their homes as a means of repaying what they owe.
The continued squeeze on household budgets – and in particular, large rises in gas and electricity bills – have hit older people particularly hard, causing many to struggle to keep up with their repayments.
In the last year, clients of CCCS’s free equity release advice service unlocked an average of £29,983 of capital from their homes to help pay down debts and meet other costs – and the charity expects to see the number of homeowners investigating this option to grow in the coming months.
CCCS equity release manager, Tom Moloney, said: “Equity release can be a good solution for some retirees looking to deal with problem debts, but it should only be considered as part of a long term retirement plan. I would urge anyone in the Milton Keynes area who is in this situation to seek free advice from a debt charity such as CCCS, who will be able to explain all the available options and give the best advice tailored to your circumstances.”
CCCS provides the UK’s only free equity release advice service. The service is backed up by the charity’s comprehensive debt counselling to ensure that equity release is only offered to those homeowners for whom it is the best solution.
More information is available on 0845 074 2987 or at www.cccs.co.uk/equityrelease.
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Wednesday 23 May 2012
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Scrumptious
Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 04:54 PMEquity release = give us your house for some cash. When you snuff it, we get the house and your kids get nowt. Sounds good to me.
Paul Griffiths
Friday, September 9, 2011 at 12:57 PMA few years ago there were a number of warnings about Equity Release Schemes not being as good as they might seem at first - for example: http:news.bbc.co.uk1hibusiness3129729.stm. It may be that they have been restructured to be fairer to the home-owner. If not - approach with caution!
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