Someone struggling on a low income in retirement can generate a tax-free lump sum

Someone struggling on a low income in retirement can generate a tax-free lump sum of tens of thousands of pounds, or a tax-free income of hundreds of pounds a month, from the value locked in their property. Homeowners don’t have to sell up and move out to do this: they can continue to live in their home until they die, when the house is sold and the loan repaid.The rise in property values and decline in pension provision also means that demand for equity release is growing. According to new research from Birmingham Midshires building society, 15 per cent of Britons plan to sell a stake in their homes to boost their retirement income. This represents a rise of 3 per cent on six months ago.”Many older people find it frustrating that their wealth is trapped in their property while they struggle to manage on a low income,” says Gordon Lishman, the director-general of the charity Age Concern.

“The current voluntary arrangements may not give consumers the necessary protection and peace of mind they are entitled to,” says Chris Kenny, the head of life and pensions at the Association of British Insurers.Regulation of all equity release products will prevent unauthorised providers from entering the market, and create a level playing field. If home reversion schemes weren’t under the remit of the FSA, while lifetime mortgages were, the Council of Mortgage Lenders says that “consumers would [be] confused by the apparent regulatory double standard”.But should people bother with equity release at all? The attraction is obvious. Almost seven out of 10 women now survive for five or more years.. After months of stating that it wouldn’t regulate home reversion plans – a type of equity release scheme – the Treasury has done a U-turn.

“This study is the first to give quantitative evidence that this recommendation is justified,” says the report.It adds: “However, the location of services and designation of specialists should not deflect from the fundamental importance of adequate and appropriate treatment that results in lower recurrence rates and improved survival.”The surgical management in specialised breast units is more often adequate, recurrence rates are lower, and survival is correspondingly better. This means that, for the first time, people will be entitled to some form of protection when they release money from the value of their bricks and mortar by selling a stake in the property, and passing legal ownership, to a financial provider.The move is overdue and a victory for commonsense. It is mainly a disease of older women, and only 3-5per cent of cases are diagnosed before the age of 40.Although the incidence of the disease is increasing, the overall mortality rate is going down. We conclude that adequate surgical management of breast cancer is fundamental to improving the outcome from breast cancer, irrespective of where it is delivered.”Breast cancer is the most common malignancy to affect women in Britain. The likelihood of the disease recurring also doubled.The researchers also looked at the adequacy of treatment given to the women. They found that, overall, women treated in non-specialist centres had double the risk of inadequate treatment, but for individual treatments, the difference was even greater.When they looked at axillary treatment – the treatment of the glands under the arm where breast cancer often spreads – for those women treated at non-specialist centres, the risk of inadequate therapy was nine time higher.The report says that despite a lack of supporting evidence, many guidelines have recommended that breast cancer should be centralised in specialist units. About 35,000 are newly diagnosed with the disease in the UK each year.Doctors who carried out the study, and who report their findings in the British Journal of Cancer, say that it is the first evidence to support calls for breast cancer treatment to be centralised at specialist units.In the research, the doctors from the University of Glasgow examined the treatment given to more than 2,000 women, then tracked them for eight years to see how they fared.

They compared the performance of specialist and non-specialist surgeons and units. About 1,000 women were operated on by specialists, and 1,242 by non-specialists.The results show that there were big differences in the treatments given by the two types of surgeon, and also in the long-term outcome for the women.Specialists were twice as likely to prescribe chemotherapy in pre-menopausal women, while non-specialists carried out twice as much inadequate breast-conserving surgery.”Although the rate of breast-conservation surgery in our study was similar, non-specialists more often performed inappropriate and inadequate surgery,” say the researchers.The results show the risk of death from breast cancer was 20 per cent higher for women treated in non-specialist units. Women suffering from breast cancer could be needlessly dying from the disease because they didn’t get the chance to see a specialist surgeon, according to a new report.
Women with breast cancer were up to nine times more likely to get inadequate treatment from non-specialist surgeons, and their risk of dying is 20 per cent higher, according to the results of the study to be published this week.Researchers also found that women treated at non-specialist units were twice as likely to suffer a recurrence of the disease. Cook on a low heat for a few minutes until the spinach is just wilted and any liquid has evaporated Sprinkle with coconut to serve..