Article by Christina
According to the latest research by Now Pensions, based on current pension data, women would have saved three times less than men by the time they reach 65, despite the fact that they live an extra four years on average.
Which is one good reason why pension advice is needed for women.
Currently the average pension for a man retiring at 65 is £205,000 but for women that figure falls to only £69,000. This means women would have to work until they were 89 in order to catch up!
The main reason lies in employment trends of course. Only 27% of women are employed full time compared with 45% of men. As always it is women who tend to give up their employment to care for children and family members.
This also means that women miss out on auto enrolment pensions because they earn below the enrolment threshold. Currently over 10 million working women are not receiving auto enrolment pension contributions from their employers, which just adds to the inequality.
Unless eligibility levels change, or there is more pension advice for women the inequality will continue.
Don’t forget that women have also been underpaid over £1 billion in pension benefits by HMRC.
According to The Pension Regulator the three most important factors preventing people saving more into their pensions are:
- That people struggle to make the right decisions about how to optimise their pensions. Which might be down to education or other socio-economic issues the regulator suggests.
- That people tend to remain in poorly performing products. Perhaps because there are obstacles in the way of moving products more easily. Or a poor understanding of performance.
- That people are at risk of or concerned about scams. This might be as a result of over confidence in financial markets or the opposite – a fear of taking risks.
Some of these factors will have more affect on women as well, which is another reason why more pension advice is needed for women.
