{"id":360047,"date":"2026-04-02T09:14:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:14:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/360047\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T09:14:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T09:14:07","slug":"at-76-im-a-full-time-carer-paying-900-rent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/360047\/","title":{"rendered":"At 76, I’m a full-time carer paying \u00a3900 rent"},"content":{"rendered":"

Self-employed people<\/a> who retired with little or no pension are a \u201cforgotten generation\u201d, according to 76-year-old Peter Williams.<\/p>\n

Peter, who retired at the age of 67, is now a full-time carer for his wife, Anne, and is worried his \u00a355,000 pension pot will not be enough \u2013 especially as the couple rent privately.<\/p>\n

Peter was self-employed for most of his career and has no workplace pension, with both he and Anne living off their state pension.<\/p>\n

New FeatureIn ShortQuick Stories. Same trusted journalism.<\/p>\n

Although he was employed during the early stages of his career in the 1970s to the late 1980s, he was not eligible for a workplace pension.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI worked for a US IT company \u2013 which struggled. There was no operation outside the US, so I was paid in dollars and was self-employed \u2013 not by choice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn my 60s, I had to find somewhere that would \u2018take me on\u2019. I ended up working for a home improvement company and a solar solutions company. Just about everybody was self-employed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter took out a private pension in the late 1980s but stopped paying into it during periods when he struggled to make ends meet, leaving him with around \u00a355,000 in a single pot that has so far remained untouched.<\/p>\n

He retired <\/a>at 67 because he wasn\u2019t earning much, and his wife, Anne, was doing well in her job in recruitment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnne was doing nicely in her job, so I took over all domestic chores and ferried her to and from work. I sort of grew into retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple were living in Southampton and, in 2016, decided to downsize after being unable to meet the final mortgage payment, taking on a smaller mortgage of \u00a350,000.<\/p>\n

But Anne was diagnosed with lung cancer and had to undergo numerous operations, as well as suffering from a perforated ulcer, which saw her spend time in intensive care and was indefinitely signed off from work.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Anne was taken to hospital two weeks after moving into our new home. Anne\u2019s medical problems continued during 2016 and 2017,\u201d Peter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis much smaller property didn\u2019t even have a downstairs loo, which Anne just couldn\u2019t manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a commode in the kitchen for a period of time, and she just had to crawl up the stairs at night. So, we basically sold on very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple sold their property within a few days of putting it on the market and moved to Skelmorlie, Scotland, in 2019, having previously visited and liked the area.<\/p>\n

Peter is now a full-time carer for his wife, whom he has been married to for 30 years, and the pair rent a bungalow for \u00a3895 a month.<\/p>\n

It has served them well but it is owned by a private, elderly landlady and they have no idea how long they will be able to remain there.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the seven years we have been renting, the value of our capital has gone down, and the cost of properties has gone up. So the gap has got bigger.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could possibly just about manage to buy a smaller place on a lifetime mortgage, but we like where we live currently. We look out the window and across the Clyde,\u201d Peter said.<\/p>\n

Although Anne built up a private pension pot of \u00a320,000, the couple do not currently draw income from their private pensions and instead live off their state pensions, which equate to \u00a32,000 a month.<\/p>\n

Anne also receives \u00a3400 a month from the adult disability payment, the Scottish equivalent of the personal independence payment (PIP).<\/p>\n

Peter said he wants to keep their pensions invested as it has taken some hits in recent years.<\/p>\n

The couple also have \u00a3100,000 in Premium Bonds from the house sale they made before moving to Scotland, and average about \u00a3400 a month in prizes, but are hoping for a \u201cbig win\u201d to restore some financial security.<\/p>\n

Despite having this money stored away, they still have far less than is recommended for a comfortable retirement.<\/p>\n

Pension UK\u2019s Retirement Living Standards says that for a couple to have a \u201cmoderate\u201d standard of retirement, they would need \u00a343,900 a year, while to have a \u201ccomfortable\u201d level of retirement, a couple would need \u00a360,600 a year.<\/p>\n

As many people spend decades in retirement, this amounts to a sizeable sum and does not include housing costs, which Peter and Anne are paying.<\/p>\n

It means their money must stretch much further than many other pensioners who have private pensions or other forms of income.<\/p>\n

Data published last month by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) also revealed 80 per cent of self-employed people are not saving consistently enough for later life.<\/p>\n

Marianna Hunt, personal finance expert at Fidelity International, said: \u201cFor the self-employed, the barriers are very real. Irregular income and the lack of employer contributions can make it much harder to commit to regular pension saving. Without more targeted support, there\u2019s a risk that many could face a more financially uncertain retirement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peter said: \u201cI never even thought about pensions in my early employment. Some people think of self-employment as little more than a means of reducing taxes, but it was more of a survival mode for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some good times, but in retrospect, have no idea what I would have done substantially different \u2013 but I no doubt made some costly \u2018wrong turns\u2019. Clearly, had company pensions become mandatory during my earlier years in employment for all companies, then that would have made a huge difference.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Self-employed people who retired with little or no pension are a \u201cforgotten generation\u201d, according to 76-year-old Peter Williams.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":360048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,5241,246,111,139,69,12613,244,245,294,11063,4575],"class_list":{"0":"post-360047","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-disability-benefits","10":"tag-finance","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-pensions","15":"tag-personal-finance","16":"tag-personalfinance","17":"tag-retirement","18":"tag-scotland","19":"tag-self-employed"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}