Older couples are more than twice as likely to divorce if they have debt problems, according to a new study.
People aged over 50 struggling with unsecured debt experienced “a statistically significant decrease in quality of life”, and were much more likely to find their relationships breaking up, suggests the research, by Age UK and the International Longevity Study.
According to Age UK:
“… this pattern was not found among those who entered unsecured credit arrangements but were not in problem debt. This suggests that problem debts could have contributed to the breakdown.”
Age UK Charity Director General Michelle Mitchell said:
“There is a small group of older people who are facing the nightmare of increasingly serious debt problems which doubles their chance of their marriage breaking down and can ruin their quality of life.”
The study, entitled Tales of the Tallyman: Debt and problem debt among older people, was based on data from the ongoing English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, a two yearly study of people over 50.
