Average incomes among the over-55s have fallen by 4%, mortgage debt has risen by over £10,000, and the number of households with savings pots of less than £500 has jumped from 21% to 30%.
These are some of the findings of Aviva’s fifth quarterly Real Retirement Report.

While the number of over-55s who own their own home (either with a mortgage or outright) has only fallen by one percentage point to 80%, the average mortgage debt has risen to £65,107 from £54,567 one year ago. Aviva says this could suggest that the recent economic turmoil has badly affected some over-55s’ abilities to repay. It could also suggest that we may see more people taking mortgage debt into retirement in the future.

23% say they don’t expect to be debt-free until they are at least 75 and 15% say they expect never to repay what they owe.

30% of over-55s have at least one form of unsecured debt that they are unable to clear currently, and 21% are still making mortgage payments.

One third of all over-55s have at least one form of unsecured debt. Of these, credit card debt that is not cleared each month is the most prevalent (30%), followed by personal loans (13%) and overdrafts (10%). The most sizeable debts are personal loans (average amount owed £5,983) followed by credit card debts (average amount owed £3,311).

For those over-55s who are in debt, 42% are planning to repay their borrowing “a bit at a time””