Pensioners at risk of bad advice

Britannia Building Society has admitted that it was unsuitable to sell a five-year bond to a 92-year-old, seriously ill man, the Daily Mail reports, but said that it would not discriminate against a customer due to their age.

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) also defended the selling of financial products to elderly people even at the risk of poor debt management amongst the old.

“We cannot assume that just because someone is a certain age then a particular type of investment is by definition unsuitable. That is too simplistic,” a spokesman told the paper.

Allegations of irresponsible lending follows news from Sesame that a significant amount of pensioners plan to never repay their debt, an indication of poor financial management.

Other reports claim that firms reward staff who sell the greatest amount of policies meaning that it is not just pensioners who have to be on their guard against irresponsible lending.