Member Article

UK women 'neglecting their futures'

Britain’s women are not saving enough for their retirement. A new survey has found 7.3m women are relying on their husbands’ pensions to get by.

41% of women earning more than £10,000 a year are contributing to a pension scheme, compared to 54% of men, according to life insurer Scottish Widows.

The gender pensions gap is getting worse, the group says. The proportion of men making adequate pension savings has risen from 49% last year to 54%. During the same period the number of women saving remained static.

Women who are paying money into a pension fund also tend to contribute far less than men. Part of the problem is that women do not earn as much – their average pay is just under two thirds of men’s.

Ian Naismith, Scottish Widows head of pensions market development, said: “Even the women that are saving in a pension are saving a smaller percentage of what they earn – effectively compounding the effect of the pay gap, and making the gender ‘pensions gap’ even wider. The gender gap in state pensions is falling because of the Government’s reforms, but the gap in private pensions is increasing.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .