According to Scottish Widows research, the 1.1 million retirees who have a mortgage also have an outstanding debt of £38,000, while one in eight owes more than £50,000.

The firm added that a third of people who have given up work has credit card and personal loan debts from over the last three months.

And Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development at the company, claimed that such burdens can turn up the financial heat.

“Our research shows that by the time they come to retire, a significant number of pensioners still have a mortgage outstanding on their property, adding financial pressure to their hard-earned retirement fund,” he said.

Across all age groups, money charity Credit Action has estimated the UK’s personal debt mountain to be around £1.3 trillion.

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