Women's pension wealth lags behind men

Men are twice as likely to have a personal pension than women, new research has found.

Figures from Royal London show that 34% of non-retired men have a personal pension, compared with 16% of women.

This, it said, means women are lagging behind men when it comes to their pension wealth.

Clare Moffat, pension and tax expert at Royal London, said there are many reasons for this gender pension gap, including:

• lower salaries among women
• women typically taking on unpaid caring responsibilities
• the effects of the menopause

Ms Moffat gave the scenario of a woman who reduces their hours to half at the age of 35 when they have a baby, and then increases their hours when they’re 51.

“Instead of a retirement income of approximately £36,600, including the state pension, it would be around £32,0003,” she said.

“That’s around £17,000 less than the average pension saver would like.”

However, Ms Moffat stressed that even small increases in your monthly contributions can “have a dramatic increase in the pot you retire with”.

Average person faces retirement shortfall

Across the board, it seems many people who aren’t currently retired won’t have as much money as they’d like in later life.

The Royal London study found that the average pension saver hopes to retire on an income of £48,868 a year, including the full state pension (£11,542).

But estimates suggest that many will fall short of this target by about £12,000.

Figures also showed that lots of people are conscious that they won’t have enough in retirement.

In fact, three in five workers said they don’t think they’re saving an adequate amount or don’t know if they need to save more.

“The best preparation for your long-term future is to start saving into a pension as early as you can,” Ms Moffat said.

“This means that small amounts of money grow into larger sums over time.”

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