Mortgage Debt, Insecure Home Ownership and Health: An Exploratory Analysis

TLDR

Housing insecurity, especially mortgage debt, is increasingly seen as a major contributor to contemporary social and cultural insecurity. The study investigates how mortgage arrears affect the health and primary health‑care use of indebted homeowners. Using secondary analysis of the British Household Panel Survey and sociological concepts of ontological security and individualisation, the authors interpret the empirical findings. Mortgage arrears independently lower subjective wellbeing for both genders and raise men’s GP visit rates, indicating that policies promoting home ownership may exacerbate psychosocial harms.

Abstract

This paper is a direct response to Wilkinson’s (1996) call for more research into housing insecurity and health. It explores the consequences of mortgage arrears for both the health of indebted home owners and their use of primary health care services. It is based on the results of a secondary analysis of the British Household Panel Survey . It demonstrates that the experience of mortgage indebtedness has an independent effect on the subjective well being of men and women, and that it increases the likelihood that men will visit their general practitioners. The paper draws upon the sociological notions of ‘ontological security’ and ‘individualisation’ to make sense of these empirical findings. It suggests that policies which have encouraged the growth of home ownership are premised on the idea of individual responsibility, a notion which underpins other spheres of contemporary welfare policies. Within this context, the consequences of mortgage indebtedness are likely to have profound psychosocial consequences for those who have direct experience of it. The spectre of mortgage debt may also contribute to the insecurity which has come to form a feature of our contemporary social and cultural life.