50-something squeeze

MOST people in their fifties have more debts than savings, a survey has found.

Excluding mortgage debt, the average person aged between 50 and 59 owes £4641 from borrowing such as credit cards loans and overdrafts, according to the research from Nationwide Financial Planning. This outweighs the average amount of cash they have put away in savings accounts, at £4511.

A fifth of 50-somethings surveyed had no “rainy day” savings at all.

Larry Banda, Nationwide’s director of financial planning, said: “Often we are squeezed from both sides – supporting our grown-up children but also our parents as they get older.”