8 July 2010
According to charity Age UK, older people are freeing up money to pay off their debts using equity release, the Guardian reports.
The Housing and Finance in Later Life report - which was compiled by the University of Birmingham - revealed that more than a third of those who have released equity from their home used the extra cash to repay their debts.
A quarter of those surveyed said they had used equity release to make `early bequests and large one-off purchases`. The remaining three quarters said they had released equity as a way of boosting capital - either to make their retirement more comfortable, or as a `last resort to relieve financial difficulty or debt`.
The charity said it was worried that many older people aren`t able to maintain a reasonable standard of living using their pension alone.
Age UK`s Charity Director, Michelle Mitchell, said: "Equity release is clearly a useful tool to ease financial pressures in later life, but anyone considering it as an option should first seek good quality information and advice."
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Tags: age, equity release, debt, using equity release to pay off debt
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