A solution for cash-poor pensioners: a state-run equity-release scheme

Many retirees find themselves short of cash despite owning an expensive house. Merryn Somerset Webb proposes one solution that could benefit everyone.

If you think about the problem inherent in the UK's retired population having too much property and not enough pension, there is an obvious solution: equity release.

People get old and they run out of cash, but as they can't bear the thought of raising that cash by moving, it makes sense to borrow against the house and stay.If you have spent most of your life paying for something, it seems a bit rubbish to have to leave it just when you have the spare time to enjoy it.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.