‘I am thinking of getting my pension funds released to pay for my rent arrears - do you think my landlord will stop possession proceedings if I pay it all off once I get the funds?’ This is what one of my clients said to me when he first came to seek advice for his rent arrears. It was in September 2016. He was 56 years old but would not be eligible for the state pension for another decade. What struck me about him was his proposal to unlock his pension funds to pay for his rent arrears. It made me think about men in his age group, how they lived and how severe their financial and other problems can be and the challenges they face trying to rectify it. These are problems that, as things stand, will persist until their retirement age. As I dug deeper into this gentleman’s personal circumstances, I discovered how he had fallen into poverty. His life was thrown into chaos once he was faced with early retirement. He previously worked for a local council and his role wa...