The 'Parent-sioner' squeeze

Financial pressures and the housing market being what it is, mean that people are unable to get on the property ladder until much later into life – mid thirties not uncommon. Similarly delayed is having children as many more women are having children in their 40s. Last year the birth rate among women aged 40 and above surpassed that of women aged under 20 for the first time since 1947. These two trends (and many others) are mean the advent of being in your 60s with children under the age of 18 is becoming far more common - new research suggests that in just 10 years there will be 1 million such UK “parent-sioners”, compared to 400,000 today. Traditionally the over-55 period is when things calm down financially. It’s also the period when many people start shovelling their money into a pension (or maybe a buy-to-let) to take advantage of tax reliefs. But as the trend to having children later in life continues it’s not really clear when and how this generation will be able to put anything extra into their pensions.