Single women face retirement financial ‘black hole’
Single middle-aged women approaching retirement are suffering more financial hardship than married couples, according to the latest statistics.
Debt counsellors have identified low-paid, single women aged between 40 and 59 as vulnerable to mortgage and credit arrears.
The Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) says that out of around 20,000 asking for help with mortgage arrears in the first six months of 2011, more than half were single women and two thirds earned less than £20,000 a year.
These figures come as a blow to low-paid single women saving for retirement who are already in the group most likely to suffer from the government’s proposal to speed up plans to increase the age when state pensions are paid.
At the moment, state pensions are paid when women are 60 – but this is set to rise to 65 in line with the state pension age for men and then to increase to 66 or 67 within a few years.
Many against the planned state pension age payment date changes were concerned that women faced a financial ‘black hole’ when many could not earn because they were caring for families nor draw pension benefits.
Now, the CCS figures show this same group is unlikely to have the financial clout to make any savings provision for this ‘black hole’ and, even worse, could face losing their homes due to mortgage arrears.
Delroy Corinaldi, of CCCS, said: “While people of all ages and backgrounds can find themselves struggling to pay their mortgage, there appears to be certain groups who are more likely to find themselves in arrears. I fear that this situation is going to get worse when interest rates rise which will leave many more unable to meet their mortgage payments.
“Generally, lenders are showing understanding to our clients in arrears, and long may it continue.”