Key questions for Age UK
staff seminar
• What is ‘sheltered/ retirement housing’ - who
lives in it? Who is it for?
• What does it offer older people in terms of
quality of life?
• Do residents find they can afford it?
• Can tenants and owner-occupiers in retirement
housing exercise voice, choice and control?
• Why does sheltered/ retirement housing matter
for Age UK?
JRF-funded research
on housing for older people:
• Focus on older people with high care/ support needs
• Emphasis on quality of life and value for money
• Sheltered & retirement housing: desk review of
evidence, data analysis, drawing on Age UK studies
• Housing with care: affordability for self-funders,
and how provider organisations work together
• Interviews with around 100 owner-occupiers and
tenants, visits to over 20 schemes across UK
What is sheltered and
retirement housing?
• Over half a million dwellings housing around 5% of
the older population
• Age-restricted (eg 55/60+), communal facilities
• Around ¾ for social rent, around ¼ for sale
• Only 10% is housing with on-site care
• Buildings should be designed for older people eg
good location (shops, transport); lifts to upper floors
• BUT wide range of dwellings, costs, facilities and
staff presence - from poor quality sheltered bedsits
to spacious 2/3-bed housing in new developments
What does sheltered/retirement
housing offer older people?
• Traditional model: limited on-site support staff member
(‘warden’ or house manager) and alarm system
• Private developments: still have on-site house
manager and most residents in age-range 70s - 80s
• Council/ housing association sheltered housing:
• Withdrawal of on-site wardens/scheme managers, many
residents now have limited (or no) staff contact
• Some still popular, some hard to let (eg bedsits, no lifts)
• More younger people (under 65) & different needs (eg
mental health, homeless); more very old (85+); more
with serious disability/ ill-health & high care needs
What does housing with care
offer older people?
• HWC offers an active independent lifestyle choice
&/or an alternative to residential care
• ‘Your own front door’, more space, flexibility/ choice
(care, activities) and tenancy/ ownership rights
• Spacious buildings designed for older people eg
wheelchair standard, wet-room showers, lifts,
extensive communal facilities (eg gym, restaurant)
• 24/7 on-site staffing, range of activities, on-site care
team available for tailored 1-1 care as needed
• Some HWC has specialist staff and residents with
specific disabilities (eg dementia, learning disability)
What does it offer older people in
terms of quality of life?
• Sheltered housing: little recent research evidence,
but significant resident concerns about loss of
‘wardens’, and tensions between more diverse
tenant mix (age, needs, lifestyles)
• Owner-occupied retirement housing
(leaseholders): suits some ‘downsizers’ but
concerns include small 1-bed flats, high charges and
‘exit fees’ when selling/ moving out
• Housing with care: mostly high levels of
satisfaction from extensive research; enables
couples to stay together even with ill-health or
disability; can be expensive, especially for selffunders with high care costs
The affordability ‘maze’…
• Difficult for older people, relatives and advice
agencies to understand/ explain the complexity
of costs in retirement housing…
• especially in housing with care (with its higher
costs)…
• and in leasehold housing for owner-occupiers
• Accessing welfare benefits and state help can
be crucial for self-funders – especially if costs
rise faster than incomes, or savings run out
Who may find it harder to afford
retirement housing?
• Leaseholders (especially in more expensive housing
with care)
• Residents under state pension age (including mixedage couples): working-age benefits much lower
• Single people (especially women: often no or low
occupational pension/savings)
• Residents who moved in as a couple and then
partner dies (especially if the carer dies)
• Couples where one partner needs a care or nursing
home and the other still has the costs of retirement
housing/housing with care
Voice, choice and control in
sheltered and retirement housing
• Voice: limited engagement of older people: in
housing and care policy-making; and within
individual retirement housing schemes
• Choice: limited range of options for housing,
care and support in later life (tenure, location,
limited models); lack of access to information/
advice for many older people and families
• Control: in theory, housing rights should give
more control, but difficult to enforce without
support, information, advice, advocacy
Why does sheltered/retirement
housing matter to Age UK?
• Influencing, research and policy work:
includes ‘Nobody’s Listening’ about warden
changes; leaseholders on high charges and exit
fees; resident-led Inquiry on retirement housing
• National services: specialist advisers for
enquiries and advice about sheltered and
leasehold housing; links to local older people
forums; information sheets
• Local services: information, advice, advocacy,
lobbying about local issues