Social care professionals at Devon County Council are predicting a three fold rise this year in the numbers of people using telecare equipment at home.

Telecare equipment is technology that monitors or senses a person's movements, or the environment within the home, and triggers calls to a 24 hour a day call centre if help is required.

Common examples include fall detectors, smoke or carbon monoxide detectors, while more specialist equipment includes pressure mats, property exit sensors, medication reminder dispensers or bed occupancy sensors.

When you think of owning a house, you think of your self in two or three decades relaxing in a property that you own outright. This reduced the financial strain you would have to live with in your later years. Unfortunately, this concept is rapidly flying out of the window.

Retirement is a time to get involved in new community activities. What does 'community' mean to you? The word can mean: all the people living in a specific locality; a specific locality including its inhabitants; a body of people having something in common such as religion, profession: a fellowship of interests.

Some pension schemes - notably self-invested personal pensions, executive pension plans and small self-administered pension schemes - allow a contributing member aged between 50 and 75 to leave their pension savings invested in the fund and to take out a regular income rather than buy an annuity. This is known as pension drawdown or pension income drawdown