Aviva: over-55s face two decades of debt

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About a quarter of over-55s will spend at least two decades of their 'winding down years' saddled with some debt, Aviva research suggests.

The group's Real Retirement Report has revealed 24% of pre-retirees (55 to 64-year-olds) still had, on average, £55,804 to pay on an outstanding mortgage in Q4 2012. This is a slight drop on the 30% who had an unpaid mortgage balance in Q4 2011. But, over the same 12 month period, there has been a rise in retiring individuals (65 to 74-year-olds) who face this issue. Fourteen per cent of those retiring said they had an unsettled mortgage value of £69,000, compared to 11% the year before. The research on around 15,000 UK consumers aged over 55 also revealed 8% of long-term retired people ...

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