Older people in Liverpool contacting debt charity Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) for help last year owed an average of £17,919 on credit cards, loans and other unsecured debts, according to newly released figures. The charity says that the situation may lead to increasing numbers of retired homeowners considering releasing equity from their homes as a means of repaying what they owe.
Several hundred people over the age of 55 from the Liverpool area contacted CCCS for free debt advice in 2010, owing an average of £17,919 in unsecured debt. The continued squeeze on household budgets – and in particular, large rises in gas and electricity bills – have hit older people particularly hard, causing many to struggle to keep up with their repayments.
In the last year, clients of CCCS’s free equity release advice service unlocked an average of £29,983 of capital from their homes to help pay down debts and meet other costs – and the charity expects to see the number of homeowners investigating this option to grow in the coming months.
CCCS provides the UK’s only free equity release advice service. The service is backed up by the charity’s comprehensive debt counselling to ensure that equity release is only offered to those homeowners for whom it is the best solution. More information is available on 0845 074 2987 or at www.cccs.co.uk/equityrelease.