Yahoo Finance Men have almost three times as much in their pension pot as women
Men have almost three times the pension pot of women – although the gap is shrinking.
New figures show that men, on average, have £73,600 in pensions compared with £24,900 for women.
However, the research also shows that women appear to be heeding the message on saving for their retirement as the disparity has closed markedly over the past two years.
In 2015, women had, on average, just £16,700 in their pension pot.
Financial services giant Aegon said a number of initiatives are behind this, including the ongoing roll–out of workplace auto-enrolment, the introduction of the pension freedoms, and the fear that pension tax relief could be reduced but it may also be that women are becoming increasingly aware of the need to provide for later life.
As a direct result of reforms 13% of women are saving more into their pension and 14% have realised that they need to plan more for retirement.
However, it’s the level of engagement where women are falling down. Over two fifths have never reviewed or taken any action that affects their plans for retirement and just a fifth have engaged in the last six months.
This is well below the levels of men; a quarter of whom have checked or amended their pension plan in the last six months.
This is perhaps why over a third of women have absolutely no idea how much they have saved in their pension.
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“It can’t go unnoticed that women have made some encouraging steps forward in saving for retirement,” said Kate Smith, head of pensions at Aegon.
“However, the difference between men’s and women’s pension savings is stark.”
She said auto-enrolment had successfully introduced 7.6 million people to workplace pensions but the gender pay gap, which is currently 13.9%, meant that men are effectively saving more without even thinking about it.
[graphiq id=”fHZlKsDSiHP” title=”Gender Wage Gap in the United Kingdom” width=”640″ height=”543″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/fHZlKsDSiHP” link=”https://www.graphiq.com” link_text=”Visualization by Graphiq” ]
“Women often face a more disrupted savings journey due to maternity leave and working part time, juggling a career and children, so it’s crucial that they actively engage with their pension savings – burying heads in the sand is simply not an option,” added Smith.
“As long as women are having babies, they will always be on the back foot when it comes to pension savings.
“Both the industry and employers have an important role to play in making pensions more accessible for women right now.”
