WHAT’S AGE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

I have recently been attempting to re-mortgage my home, a two-bedroom apartment in a listed building, in a very desirable Somerset village.

At the age of 64, single, with no dependants (apart from a rather naughty cat) with equity in the property, and a good credit rating, it has been proving rather difficult.

My current income does not appear to be a problem, and I have had no difficulty in meeting my mortgage commitments over the last 12 years, since moving in; what seems to be the stumbling block is my age and the lender’s obsession with my income post retirement, despite my assurance that I have no plans to retire any time soon. I work purely to fund the lifestyle to which I have happily become accustomed, one of self-indulgence balanced by significant charitable giving.

On pondering my dilemma, and having carried out minor research, I ascertained that were I in my 40s the question of ‘future’ income would not be raised. I get it that lenders will want to establish a person’s ability to keep up with mortgage payments, but I would argue that given the unstable economic environment that we have suffered for some years now, no-one’s job, and the income that goes with it, is safe. Long gone are the jobs for life on offer when I first entered into the workplace. In this hire and fire society, when organisations, whether public or private, are busily ‘transforming’ (for which read ‘redundancy’), there is very little stability in any industry.

With the average lifespan for a woman in the UK now 82.9, I have a good few years of toil left in me yet, and should I die prematurely then a lender would recoup their money on the subsequent sale of the property. In addition, had the government not kept shifting the pension goal posts for women my age I would be in the happy position of having received my pension for the last 4½ years, which at a rough estimate would have been over £30,000, instead of having to wait another year.

I spend much of my life promoting equality and the Equality Act 2010 states that ‘age discrimination’ is allowed in certain circumstances, but that it must be ‘objectively justified’, and ‘show good reason’. It seems that financial institutions, and the government consider themselves exempt from the laws that others have to adhere by. 

Time someone took some action to rectify this gross misjustice.