Yahoo Finance Pension pots increase 35% but gender savings gap widens
The average pension pot of UK employees in large firms is now £120,000, a 35% increase on three years ago.
Men have seen an increase from £120,000 to £162,000 while women have seen a jump from £53,000 to £73,000, according to the Changing Trends of Financial Wellbeing report from asset managers Close Brothers.
Beyond pensions, the average saving and investment pot of UK employees is £31,000, a 3% decrease since 2017.
Men have seen their average saving pot rise 8% from £36,000 to £39,000 in three years, while women have seen their savings plummet from a £26,000 average to just £22,000 - a 15% fall.
Around a quarter of UK employees do not know the total value of their pension savings, and this figure is 30% among those aged 65 and over.
READ MORE: Triple lock risks pensions rising five times faster than earnings
Three times as many women as men have no pension, standing at 11% compared to 4%.
And employees working in consumer goods and services are the most likely to have no savings in pension schemes.
Jeanette Makings, head of financial education at Close Brothers said: “While it’s really good news to see the improving pensions landscape, no doubt spurred on by the effects of auto-enrolment and financial education, there is still a significant amount of work to be done to educate employees to balance their savings plans to ensure they can support their lifestyle now, for the future and for retirement. With the stark gender imbalance this is even more urgent for women."
In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the report found that 16% of workers are going to reduce the amount they save into their pensions, due to pressures on shorter term needs.
Female workers, however, are less likely to make this decision compared to nearly one in five of their male counterparts.
