MORE clergy may have help with retirement housing than previously forecast, the Pensions Board has concluded, after a recent survey found that 69 per cent of respondents believed it unlikely that they’d own a property on retirement.
The results of the survey, which gathered almost 1300 replies from stipendiary clergy, appears in a report on the response to the Board’s consultation on options for clergy retirement housing (News, 17 November 2023). The consultation, “Enabling Choice”, was launched after the Board warned that the present provision — the CHARM scheme that permits clergy to rent a property from the Board — required “an enormous and increasing investment from the Church, and it is tough to assume how this will proceed because it is”.
Enabling home ownership during ministry will likely be among the many “essential” elements of any future offering, the Board has suggested, along with encouraging clergy to plan ahead and save.
The most vital finding of the survey, which was conducted in January, is that “more clergy may have help with retirement housing than previously forecast.”. In total, 23 per cent of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed that they’d be counting on the Church to offer housing for them on retirement. The current proportion searching for help from the Board is 17 per cent, which the Board has already described as “unprecedented” (News, 31 January).
The report records that 56 per cent of clergy in ministry today own a property — down from 60 per cent in a 2021 survey, which could also be, the Board suggests, “the primary sign of a downwards trend in property ownership, driven by challenges of property price growth for younger generations, even though it may very well be as a consequence of differences in respondents”.
Among the 1300 survey respondents — of whom 58 per cent were over 56 — 22 per cent considered it “unlikely” that they’d own a property on retirement, and 47 per cent considered if “highly unlikely”.
Of those who didn’t currently own a house, 72 per cent said that they’d be prone to make use of a suggestion from the Church of monetary support towards home ownership; of those aged 26 to 35, this rose to 86 per cent.
Both home ownership and savings levels are higher amongst those closer to retirement. One third (34 per cent) of those over 55 years of age who shared their savings details had greater than £50,000 in savings. But the survey also highlighted that about one in ten of those with lower than two years until retirement had not yet taken “basic steps” to organize for retirement, including taking a look at information on their pension.
The results add further evidence to concern about financial well-being among the many clergy. When asked about their funds, 35 per cent of respondents said that they were “just getting by”, while an additional 20 per cent said that that they had been finding it difficult to administer in recent months. About one third (30 per cent) were counting on the stipend as their essential source of income. More than one third of clergy had lower than £10,000 in savings, and greater than 50 per cent had lower than £30,000.
The survey was conducted along with collating responses to the “Enabling Choice” paper, which totalled greater than 850, of whom 77 per cent were stipendiary clergy.
The Board describes feedback as “overwhelmingly positive”, deducing from it “real appetite amongst clergy for more selection around their future retirement housing plans, with numerous interest in ideas to assist support financial plans, enable home ownership, and encourage an everyday rhythm of quality conversations across ministry”. In total, 87 per cent of respondents supported enabling more selection for clergy around retirement housing.
Among the concerns expressed were “that any recent selections have to be adequately resourced and genuinely inexpensive to clergy”, and that support have to be “personalised and ideally in person”. The Board writes of “a selected concern that where the stipend is the essential source of income, clergy would struggle to avoid wasting towards a house of their very own”.
Almost all respondents — 94 per cent — agreed that there would proceed to be a necessity for the Church to offer its own retirement housing choice to some retiring clergy, and the report offers reassurance that the Board sees this as “a necessary a part of the longer term”. But it reiterates that “directly provided housing is expensive for the Church, and meeting the demand from future retirees would require substantial additional funding”.
Concern was expressed in regards to the impact of changes on those nearing retirement. More than 60 per cent of respondents felt that five to 10 years was an appropriate transition period for any changes to be implemented.
The Board plans to offer further details about future provision later this yr.
