Over 50s have expressed concern over the behaviour and attitudes of a number of mortgage lenders.
A Saga Personal Finance poll of 6,243 people aged over 50 found that many older people have complaints about their bank or mortgage provider introducing arbitrary upper age limits on lending criteria and also placing a bar on older borrowers getting better deals.
This is against a backdrop of working life being extended through the raising of the state retirement age, the abolishing of firms being able to set compulsory retirement ages and moreover the desire of many people to continue to work full or part-time in later life.
When Saga asked a panel of over 6,000 people aged over 50, 85% of respondents thought that lending criteria should be based on ability to pay and not just on a person’s age and 52% thought that the regulator should intervene to ensure fair treatments by mortgage lenders.
In terms of individuals experiencing discrimination 12% of those aged 50-59 who expressed an opinion said that they thought that they had been prevented from moving their mortgage to a more competitive deal because of their age.
Paul Green of Saga said: “It appears that mortgage lenders are blind to the fact that the world of work is changing. It simply beggars belief that people are being denied mortgages or forced to pay more for uncompetitive deals simply because of their age. This smacks of lazy lending, not bothering to understand your customers and is an another example of the industry not responding to the needs of an aging population.”
Saga is calling for the Financial Conduct Authority to take a proactive stance with mortgage lenders to ensure that lending criteria are fair and based on ability to pay and not just on age.