Almost one-quarter of workers in Scotland are heading into retirement this year with some form of debt, with many yet to pay off their mortgages, credit cards or loans.
The figure is the highest in the UK with an average of just over £36,000 owed as they prepare to end their working lives, according to a survey by the Prudential.
It found that, across the UK, one in 12 people planning to collect pensions this year will still be paying off their mortgage. Some 8% of those planning to retire in 2014 said they still have not fully paid off their mortgage and around 10% still have credit card debt.
On average, those who still have some form of mortgage and/or non-mortgage debt owe £24,800, though this is 21% lower than the typical debt in 2013 of £31,200, researchers found.
Wales and the north-west of England were the next most likely areas for retirees to owe money, with 21% of people in both of these areas expecting to retire in debt. Those in debt expect to take four years to clear what they owe.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article