Telling OAP's to sell their home.

I moved from a larger house to slightly smaller in my 60s. It is still expensive to heat and 10 minutes walk to shops and buses, which could get difficult when older.
The problem with moving to a flat is that service charge tends to be very high, which is a lot out of a small pension every month. Retirement flats are cheaper to buy but service charges are even higher and they are hard to sell when needed.

I live in a small detached house (2 bedrooms and a boxroom) and am staying put. I cant do with the stress of moving again at my age (80) and with lack of mobility. As others upthread have pointed out flats in this area are expensive and poky. Flats are also noisy and cheek by jowl with neighbours. Ive had some unfortunate experiences in the past with noisy neighbours and at least here I can close my door on them.

I am self employed and use the extra bedrooms as an office and stockroom. So I also know how to manipulate tax allowances and business expenses to cover a % of my household expenses. I wont be going cold this winter. The temperature in my lounge is 22 as I write this (although I am wearing my furry poncho).

I've just bought some Damart vests!

Don’t we all want our social services, NHS, police, education funded adequately?

Probably, but at 81, (the caller who is referred to), is not going to see a lot of benefit by the time the money is pumped in.

Surely it is about living within your financial means ? If that changes then you need to make changes.

In reverse you wouldn’t expect a couple in a one bed flat to stay there forever, as their careers and incomes progress.Especially if they have children.

If I get to the point when I can’t manage our house for any reason I won’t hesitate in moving to a smaller place in the same village or elsewhere.

I can well understand anyone not wanting to leave their home of many years, especially since moving is a major hassle for anyone a lot younger, let alone when you’re in your 80s.

But IMO it’s quite unreasonable to expect to be subsidised by the taxpayer, in order to stay in a house that’s much too big for you.

What is needed in such cases is evidently someone else to undertake all the PITA faff of estate agents/solicitors/removals men, not to mention helping to decide what of all the maybe much-loved contents will have to go.

I dare say it’s often adult children who undertake all this. Maybe the lack of any such help is why a lot of elderly people don’t move.

I did move from the big cold house but this area is quite insular and not welcoming.My older friends from my previous area don't like driving so far so that's another disadvantage.

pascal30

I wonder if people with low incomes and large houses have considered a lodger.. there are very definite tax advantages as you're allowed to keep £7.500 before tax.. and there would be someone to check if you for example.. had a fall or heart attack.

No, never entertain any thoughts of a lodger!
I once went down that route, some years ago, and an agency found a single woman with a well-paid job, good references, who seemed near to ideal.

Until she was in situ.

Pretty soon I thought I'd taken on the devil incarnate. It took several police visits and a lot of money in solicitors fees to get her out. She was a Holy Horror.

It turned out the references were fake: the agency had concocted them.

karmaladywhere are all these young families who can afford large homes vacated by older folk? Not here ! The answer is more council houses though I understand council tenants are considered second class in some parts of the country.When I got married almost 50 years ago we were lucky enough to get a brand new 3 bedroom semi with garage and heating included in our council rent It gave us the chance to get on our feet and start our business and 8 years on we bought a flat leaving the house for someone who needed it.
That is in my opinion,the Way forward ,more good quality council homes .Council homes that by the way,earn their keep and are used as collateral by councils .Instead Thatchers sale of them with the proviso of the profit(if there was any) couldn’t be spent on more building has left many areas short of essential homes.In my area we have newbuild council and housing association homes springing up all across the county

It has been said above that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life. The older we get, the more stress it creates. Why put so much pressure on the elderly to leave their life-long system - the family home, the neighbours and familiar shops and services that surround them, and the space to keep their possessions around them? Anyone who does any craft, which mean a lot of older people, will know how you need somewhere to store materials and tools, and to spread things out while you work. We don't all sit around watching daytime telly all the time!
Returning to the stress, I know of a family who sold both their own house and grandmother's, to buy a bigger one that they could all live in. On the morning of moving day, grandma was found to have died in her sleep. The stress had been too much for her, even with others doing all the work.
Surely there must be some way that social services could ensure that people could stay in there own house, maybe in return for the transferring the house so that it can be sold for funds or used as accommodation. There are already ways to raise money on your home, but they are designed as moneymakers for the lenders, and they don't help with practical support. It needs official involvement.

I can't see that idea being embraced by many!

All this fa la la about paying more to improve public services. At 80 how much longer am I going to live to benefit from these putative improvements? Its younger people who will benefit - Ive done my share.

These people who randomly say, " sell the house" don't realise how stressful that is the older you get. I think when people retire everyone should take a hard look at their homes and say will this be suitable for us as we age, are saying we need the space for visitors isn't a good enough reason to stay and your needs need to come first. I bet 8 out of 10 couples will have health problems of one type of another within a year or two of retirement. We were forced to move shortly after retirement due to my DH having a stroke, he was 62 and I was 59, he had retired 6 months before, I was still working and had to finish to look after him. It was the one positive from a very stressful time. It's not easy when something happens out of the blue.

So, the answer is to stay put, and accept that it'll cost a very small amount more, as the fuel allowance has been taken from those who are above a particular threshold.

How much will it be?
Someone worked it ut and I think it was £4 a week.

I thank my late husband for ensuring I would be looked after after he died. I get a share of his private pension and my full state pension and am above the threshold for claiming benefits but I am comfortable, can buy food and heat my home from morning until evening. Losing the winter fuel allowance has not made any difference to how I will live my life but like I said, that is thanks to my late husband and I providing for ourselves during our lives together and ensuring we had a comfortable retirement which sadly my husband only lived for two years after retiring aged 65.

I do think that people who have made the effort throughout their working lives to ensure they have a decent retirement are being penalised for the people who didn't and now expect handouts and benefits. Same with illegal immigration, these immigrants we know not who they are or what they have done in their own country, still get more given to them than any pensioner and to me that is absolutely diabolical.

As far as I am concerned the Labour government is more about looking after immigrants than their own British born and bred people.

MissAdventure

I can't see that idea being embraced by many!

It was only a random thought, Mis A All those clever people in the cabinet could surely come up with a better idea for helping people stay in their own homes that pays for itself.

Oh yes, I'm pretty sure something could be worked out.

The point would be not to make people end up having to sort of barter with their own property, I think.

We are now in our late seventies and our house, whilst built in 2008 is requiring some maintenance now. We have quite a lot of land which also requires maintenance and we are starting to pay for help on the land - grass cutting mainly at the moment.

It's on one level with a slope to the front door and steps down into the back garden and was designed with the future in mind. My DH would like to sell and buy something smaller but I would prefer to stay here.

We don't have large private pensions. We were with Equitable Life and when that collapsed I was put off the idea of pensions. We have always regarded our home as being our pension, but being in France it has not increased in value at the same rate as it would have done in the UK. I am still working, doing something that I enjoy but I may have to stop in the near future because of ill health.

We are now looking into Equity release because this will (a) save the hassle and cost of moving and (b) we don't have children who would be interested in their inheritance. Whatever is left will go to charity.

The choices for equity release are not as varied in France as they are in the UK. Obviously there will be an interest charge which will be added to the loan and deducted from the proceeds when the house is sold.

Some of you will have invested as much as you can into your home, possibly by reducing pension contributions. House values have increased substantially over the last 20 years (an average of 41% since 2010) and pension funds have not kept up with that in most cases. So, why not regard your house as part of your pension and use it to make your lives more comfortable?

I'm another one that doesn't see why people should move from their longstanding home against their will. Plus the very practical point of it does cost thousands of £s one has to have available for doing so. By the time one has to loan out a 10% deposit the owner of the next house will require from you (you don't lose that money - but it has to be available for those few weeks for you to loan it out for that). Then the legal and removal costs and any renovation work the house needs etc. If there is little or no savings = where does that money come from?

Advising taking in lodgers may or may not work - I've had to have lodgers for a few years way back when I bought my starter house and there's some good ones out there - but then there's "the rest" and there's a good chance one will get one of them, instead of a decent one.

Add in if one knows/feels at home in current neighbourhood = why would you swop it for an unknown quantity if you can help it?

So retirement flats have those high service charges, etc. Then, if one moves from a house to a bungalow = there's a good chance the last owner of it will have been elderly and the house might be outdated and/or needing maintenance and that's all hassle and expense (tell me about it - as my current house is a 1970s bungalow and I've had the expense and hassle of having to literally rip out EVERYTHING. I tell people that the only thing left by previous owners that I kept is the internal doors and the windows - but I have ripped out absolutely everything else in the house and garden). That was all a LOT more hassle than it should have been - as I moved from an efficient English city to an area with a thing widely called the "Pembrokeshire Promise" (ie workmen promise and promise and do a load of let-downs on people). So many of us will be in our 70's and upwards - but still want a "modern" home to match our modern tastes/needs that we personally have (there is no way I would have put up with a gimcrack central heating system, oil tank in garden and Rayburn cooker and load of bodge jobs the house had when I bought it LOL). It had to function efficiently and match my tastes. Most people simply don't want all the hassle of having to renovate a house once they've got to an age where they are "counting the years off" and I know of two people (one only around my age) that have bought houses nearby recently and they haven't even decorated!!! (though they both have the money to have the work done). Maybe a persons current house is old-fashioned anyway - but that variant on "old-fashioned" is probably "their personal taste old-fashioned" - whereas someone else's house is probably "A.N.Other Persons taste variant of old-fashioned".

Getting older often means lots of extra time/effort spent on maintaining one's own body - and so you certainly don't want to spend time/effort on moving if you can help it (even to a house that's already been modernised and isn't too far from your own tastes). Cue "You know your body is getting older when you've just laid down a rule for yourself of you are only going to have a maximum of one appointment for your body per week - and that includes the hairdresser appointments" as it's been taking up too much time dealing with it LOL.

So - no....I don't think it's fair for people to feel they "have" to move from a long-established home that they actually like/feel comfortable in.

The government should be going after the energy companies. They should have a different much lower tariff for those on pension credit and other benefits so not just the elderly benefit. The costs should be lower per kilowat for everyone of course. It is tough for those just above the threshold for benefits and those who have lost a partner and are struggling on one persons pension/s.
The term OAP is so all encompassing covering the extraordinarily rich to the very poor and those in their 60s to those in their 90s. The state pension is going to be increased next year and should be higher as it is in other parts of Europe. For those in higher income bands it is taxable so any fuel allowance should always have been incorporated into the state pension. So the wealthier elderly would have been taxed on it.
One thing I am grateful for is that when we had central hearing put in years ago we had a wall thermostat upstairs and downstairs so can we heat part of the house at any time. Upstairs at the moment as DH has declining health and is bedroom bound.
If and when it is just me in this 4 bedroomed house I will be looking to move within 2 years. A smaller house in this area will cost not a lot less and I would be looking for a well insulated new build. Our house is 1888 and draughty. It also needs a lot of work so would be sold with that reflected in the price. It has memories of course after 45 years....but is just a house. I would not be looking for a vast profit but for a smaller warm house close to everything as we are here. The costs of moving are unavoidable and part of the whole exercise. I feel sad for the BIL above whose daughters are reluctant for him to move as they wsnt to safefuard their inheritance. God help them if he remarries!!!

TopGunner
Regarding illegal immigration.

these immigrants... still get more given to them than any pensioner

No. If you are here illegally you won't be getting anything unless you are awaiting deportation or similar. If you've been here 10 years plus you may find there are options to apply for leave to remain I think.

The Illegal Migration Act changes the law so that those who arrive in the UK illegally will not be able to stay here and will instead be detained and then promptly removed, either to their home country or a safe third country.
(Home Office).

I would take equity release if I needed to and wished to stay in my home.I had to downsize 10 years ago and it cost a lot of money in Stamp Duty,legal fees and then upgrading the property I moved to.I won't move again unless I really want to.

paddyann54, maybe not that many young families, but maybe older parents with older children, who may well be moving out of a smaller house or a flat, and thus making that available further down the line.

Though having said that, I do agree that more social housing is urgently needed.

watermeadow

If you are managing alone in your big house that’s good but nobody should expect help from the government so they can do the same.
I shall miss the winter fuel payment, I’m just over the limit, but I’m very willing to go without and be a bit chilly to held mend broken Britain.
Don’t we all want our social services, NHS, education, police etc funded adequately? They’re not going to ever improve if every single person affected objects to any change.

Sick of this mantra. Money spent on countries that don't need it, China and India to name two. Millions spent on illegals crossing in boats, they won't have to pay to keep warm will they.
Now they have the cheek to expect us to rent out a room to them. No way.
Our pensioners, veterans,hard working farmers, small businesses are the back bone of this country, making it what is was.yet they are still expected to stump up more and more to keep the bloated public sector afloat. Apparently what they take from farming families ,will keep our WWHS afloat for 10 hours. Whoopee do, destroy farms for what. Oh yes we are paying for the train drivers too, well hope their NI contributions is commensurate with their pay,that'll hurt. When actually it needs a rapid overhaul of its expenses.
Yes I am angry,it's always the litte man, never the big corporations.

The disadvantage of downsizing can be lack of accommodation for visiting family and friends which can be a vital mood lifter when you are older. Sometimes you need somebody to stay over if you are ill or recovering from an operation and extra space can be a godsend.

Those who suggest selling up as the best option often have no idea what older age actually means.

If you can afford to stay in your home and have a reliable support network then staying put is the best option IMO.