News Home » Comments » More Pensioners have debts. (31/12/2009)

Soaring levels of debt among those in their late 50s and early 60s means many will have to keep on working long after their retirement age. On average, they owe at least four times as much as people of the same age a decade ago, according to a study. The debts do not include mortgages, if they have one, only unsecured loans such as credit or store cards. In a bleak warning, the report says that many will be forced to keep working, possibly into their late seventies, to repay credit card borrowings, overdrafts and personal loans. Record numbers of pensioners are already working, with nearly 1.3million women over 60 and men over 65 in jobs. It showed that one in four aged 55 to 64 were "credit users" and they owed an average of £2,500 in unsecured debt.