Brits provide financial life line to elderly relatives

With 54 per cent of retirees struggling to make ends meet, new research from Engage Mutual Assurance reveals that families are stepping in to provide a financial life line to their elderly relatives.

Nearly one in ten British adults (9%), the equivalent of more than 1.7m adults, is helping with the costs of their parents' retirement. Of these, 22 per cent have given money to their parents to help them to make ends meet on day-to-day expenses; 22 per cent are paying towards their parents' care, and 33 per cent have taken their parents into their or a relative's home in order to reduce their costs of living and care.

The research was conducted as part of Engage Mutual's 3GB research, which looks at the changing financial relationships between family members. A GB representative sample of adults with parents over the age of 65 was questioned in order to understand how they are supporting their parents in retirement.

Accommodating Elderly Relatives

Overall, three percent of adults with parents over 65 (more than half a million) have brought their parents to live with them or relatives to cover the costs of their retirement. As parents get older, the need to move them into the family home in order to provide care increases significantly. Of Britons with parents between the ages of 85 and 94, one in ten (10%) are accommodating their parents in their or a relative's home in order to reduce their costs of living and care.

Retirement Putting a Strain on Family Relationships

One in four (25%) Britons with parents over 65 is concerned about how the family will cover the costs of their parents' retirement or that their inheritance will be spent by their parents in paying for their retirement.

Of all adults with parents over 65:

14 per cent say that they are worried that they cannot afford to pay for their parents to go into a care home.
11 per cent say that they are worried that they cannot afford to support their parents in retirement;
Nine per cent are worried that their parents cannot afford their own retirement; and
Eight per cent worry that their parents will spend all of their inheritance to fund their retirement.

Making Provisions for Retirement

Just 42 per cent of adults say that their parents have enough money saved to afford their retirement. A further five per cent expect their parents to release equity from their home in order to afford retirement and six per cent say that their parents have downsized their home in order to afford their retirement.

Going further to support their parents in retirement, one per cent of Britons have saved money to help support their parents through their retirement.

The South of England has the highest proportion of people worried about how their parents over 65 will afford retirement, with 45 per cent voicing a concern.

Those in the Midlands are the most likely to be supporting their retired parents (16%).

People in Wales are the most likely to say that their retired parents have enough money saved to cover their retirement (57%), whilst those in the Border region are least confident in their parents savings (19%).

Karl Elliott, 3GB spokesperson for Engage Mutual Assurance said: "As costs of living increase, retirees are finding it increasingly difficult to make ends meet. In hard times people often turn to family members for support and, as our research shows, this is the case for elderly relatives as well as young adults who are finding it increasingly difficult to disconnect themselves financially from their parents.

"With the size of Britain's retired population growing, and costs of living increasing, it is important that people save little and often towards their retirement in order to reduce the pressure on themselves and their family to make ends meet in old age."