Britons 'Supporting Retired Parents'

Many Britons are being forced to provide their parents with financial assistance after retirement, in order that they avoid falling into debt.

New research from insurer Engage Mutual, released today, shows that nine per cent of people help their parents out in this way due to them being unable to make ends meet on their pension income alone. Within this group, 22 per cent said that the money was handed over to help them meet the "day to day" expenses which the state pension is designed to cover; 33 per cent also said that their parents were currently living with other family members in order to cut costs.

General concerns over the financial welfare of the elderly were found to be still more widespread: around one quarter of people with parents aged over 65 told Engage Mutual that their financial outlook worried them. In addition, around 14 per cent of people said that they feared not being able to pay if their parents needed to move into an old people's home, due to the parlous state of their own finances.

Karl Elliott, spokesman 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."