Good week/bad week

By Rebecca Law, Media and PR officer

This was a bad week for Wilf Cooper of Lockleaze in Bristol after his wife finally got wind of his double life. Contrary to what you may be thinking, this 90-year-old was not guilty of indulging in illicit trysts, gambling or drinking but of sneaking out and secretly running half marathons.

Wilf had already successfully completed six events behind his wife’s back – who believed Wilf to be watching the races from the sidelines - before being caught out by a neighbour who spotted him on TV. “He was in the doghouse that day,” says Mrs Cooper in an interview in the Daily Mail.

Despite his wife’s concern, the 90-year-old, who suffered a heart attack 20 years ago, is planning a swan song: he’ll be running one last time to raise money for St Peter’s Hospice.

As well as keeping himself super fit, Wilf clearly enjoys flexing his social media muscles too. He has his own JustGiving page here. If you’d like to see the full story, read it here.

This was a good week for Britons with a mortgage as record low interest rates mean that mortgage borrowers have shaved £51 billion off their payments since the bank rate hit 0.5% two and a half years ago. That is, of course, really positive news for many, since we’re all feeling the strain in the current economic climate, but it is, sadly, the silver lining of a rather grey cloud.

Those same low interest rates mean that savers – who outweigh the number of borrowers - are estimated to have lost out on £43billion in interest earnings in the same period. Pensioners, in particular, many of whom have paid off their mortgages – so don’t see the benefits that borrowers do - are reliant on the interest from their savings to live.

While borrowers celebrate their gain, pensioners are seeing their spending power slashed, especially when combined with high inflation rates (CPI rose to 4.4% in July). It’s a double whammy for pensioners who get the rawest deal with price rises since they typically spend more on things like electricity and fuel, which have seen eye-watering price hikes this year. You can read more about this here.