WHETHER 50 is just around the corner or long gone, the older you are, the more your cash needs to look after you. With 420,000 older households struggling, prevention is better than cure.

Here are ten crucial tips for the over 50s.

1. Never just take your pension company’s offer.

If you’ve been saving money up in a pension, at retirement it’s likely you’ll need to buy an annuity.

This is where you trade your pension pot in for a regular income, usually until you die.

Never just go for your own provider’s annuity. You have a legal right to buy elsewhere, so always ensure you compare as many as possible.

With an annuity costing £100,000, the best can pay £900 a year more than the worst – and if you live over 25 years, that’s £22,500.

If you’re not sure, see an independent financial adviser.

2. Free cash to improve your home.

Thousands of pounds is available to help with home improvements to insulation – yet much of it goes untouched.

Lots of companies are currently doling out up to £300 of free cavity wall and loft insulation to anyone. See moneysavingexper t.com/freeinsulation and try the energysavingtrust.org.uk grant finder (or call it on 0800 512 012).

3. Annual travel insurance can be £30.

The first step for travel insurance is to ensure you’ve an EHIC card if you’re travelling within Europe via ehic.org.uk.

This gives you access to staterun EU hospitals at the same cost as a local. If you’ve already got one, many don’t realise they only have a limited lifespan, so check yours is valid. If not, get a new one . Don’t Google this, as you’ll usually hit a spam site that’ll try to charge you.

If you need travel insurance, it needn’t cost a fortune – especially if you go away frequently, as you can get an annual policy that covers an entire year.

If you’re aged 50-60, you can get £20-£45 annual cover. If you’re older, prices go up – though even those in their 70s can get annual policies for around £100. Full breakdown at moneysavingexpert.com/travel insurance.

4. You can boost the state pension.

Don’t assume your state pension will be a fixed sum you have no control over. There are ways to boost it. For some people, spending a few hundred pounds to make up for missed National Insurance payments can add up to many thousands in their pockets over the years.

If you are fortunate enough not to need your state pension immediately, consider deferring.

For every five weeks you delay taking it, your future weekly allowance increases by one per cent. It’s worth investigating.

5. Have the ‘unpleasant issues’ chat.

Hopefully, you’ll live happily to 120, yet there’s a chance you won’t. The sooner you deal with what will happen, the better.

Sort out a will. These can be free via charities if you bequeath, and organisations like Which? have cheap services.

Prepare a financial factsheet with info for your family, eg, insurance provider, mortgage, savings etc. If you’ve a lot of assets, do an inheritance tax plan.

6. What if you lost your faculties?

One in three of us die with dementia. If you lose mental capacity, unless you’ve a power of attorney, loved ones may face a costly legal battle to help you.

Don’t think signing one means you instantly give up control – it can just be ready to use if and when you need it. Download the forms at direct.gov.uk

7.Take advantage of age-related freebies.

There are a wealth of freebies and discounts for silver savers, including bus passes, TV, prescriptions, plus deals from the likes of B&Q, Specsavers and Odeon and more.

8. Don’t be one of the million or so who miss out on pension credit.

The full state single pension’s £102.15, yet if your total income is under £137 or even if you’ve some savings, you may be entitled to a top-up above that.

Call the Pension Service on 0800 99 1234 to talk about it.

9. Don’t be loyal to gas and electricity companies.

Many people could save more than £300 a year. Switching’s easy.

It’s the same electricity and the same gas. Only customer service and your billing changes.

To compare, use a consumer focus.org.uk approved comparison site, or go to them via moneysavingexpert.com/gaselec – then you get cashback of up to £30 or a crate of wine on top.

If you’re not online, try calling Uswitch on 0800 051 5493 or Energylinx on 0800 849 7077.

10. Equity release is not a nobrainer.

If you own your home, but have little income, equity release loans are sold as a way to spend its value while living there.

Yet while rates sound similar to mortgages, eg, 6.5 percent, as you don’t make monthly repayments, the interest compounds fast.

Take £20,000 when you’re 65 and your dependants face a bill of £100,000 if you die 25 years later.

In truth, the best way to release equity from your home is usually to sell it and move somewhere smaller.

Many people plan to do that ‘later on’ when in their 50s and 60s, but by the time they get round to it, anecdotally at least, it seems too difficult.

So if you’re going to do it – do it early. If you must equity release, at least talk to an independent mortgage broker about the options.

● NEWSFLASH! M&S opens online clothes outlet

M&S has 50 popular outlet stores (that sell clearance items), now it’s opened an online store at up to 40 per cent off. Sign up to M&S’s Outlet newsletter at outlet.marksand spencer.com/info/newsletter and you’ll be e-mailed a free extra ten per cent off code.

● Cahoot loan customers— reclaim £1,000s

Anyone who had a Cahoot Flexi loan between 2006 and 2008 (even if now repaid) should check if their rate was hiked.

If it was, complain. We’ve seen a huge £8,000 reclaim, plus many other successes.

Full how-to at moneysavingexpert.com/cahoot