Figures Reveal Pensions Gender Gap
Women retiring in 2011 expect to receive a yearly pension a third lower than what men expect to receive, according to a survey by financial services firm Prudential. The figures indicate a pension gender gap of £6,500, and a third of all women hold no private or company pension scheme.
Men retiring this year expect to receive an average income of £19,400, whilst females anticipate a significantly smaller sum of £12,900. More promisingly however, the gender gap appears to have fallen since last year. In the 2011 Prudential survey the gender gap was recorded as £7,400, which was £900 more than this year.
Head of Business Development at Prudential, Vince Smith-Hughes, commented: “It is good news that average retirement incomes for women have risen, but unfortunately the gender gap remains stubbornly wide. It is imperative for anyone looking to secure sufficient retirement income to start saving as much as they can, as early as they can and to seek professional financial advice in the run up to retirement.”
The news came on the same day that the government’s state pension reforms were berated for being unfair towards women. Pensions tsar and Labour peer Lord Hutton suggested that rising women’s retirement age to 66 so rapidly would not allow them to make up the income lost. Hutton claimed that “people not in a position to adjust their retirement plans cannot fairly be asked to do so.”
Most popular searches: state pension
Leave a Reply