Crosby Finance

Research has found that British pensioners have a combined debt of £57bn and many still have mortgages to pay off as they are entering retirement.

A leading pension provider has said that there are a total of 1.1 million retired homeowners who are still making monthly mortgage payments, with the average debt being £38,000.

One in eight people in retirement have a debt of more than £50,000 that they owe on their mortgage and the average unsecured debt owed by pensioners is £5,900.

Another factor that is not helping the level of debts that pensioners are facing is the fact that some also have financially dependant children, around one in 12 of those questioned said that they were still paying out for their offspring.

The research also looked at people who hadn’t yet reached retirement and found that many still had a long way to go before they were to have cleared their mortgage debt.

The pension provider said that their research had shown that 42% of 50-59-year-olds still had their mortgage to pay off, with the average debt being £54,300. Among the 60-64-year-olds, 25% had an average mortgage debt of £42,800.

With this unfortunate trend of taking your mortgage into retirement with you, and the average pensioner income currently standing at £22,900, people are being advised to organise their debts in order to prepare for later life. If people were to still have concerns over their money, it would perhaps be advisable to get debt management advice from an expert.

The pension’s provider said that part of the reason why people still owed money on their mortgage into their retirement was a direct effect from them having to wait to get on to the property ladder, meaning that they start paying off their mortgage a lot later on in life.

A government spokesperson said that the government recognises the importance of making people more financially secure, which is why they have set out a long-term strategy to help consumers manage their finances with greater confidence.