Women will lose £7,000 each unless they consider any one of 'four steps'

Women will lose £7,000 each unless they consider any one of 'four steps'
-Credit: (Image: Reach Publishing Services Limited)


Women are being urged to consider vital steps to boost their retirement income once they pack work in - as they face an £7,000 annual shortfall. Experts have warned the gender pension gap may not close until 2114 without urgent action in the UK.

The average woman is set to receive £7,000 less each year in retirement income than the average man, it has emerged. At age 22, there is a £100 difference in pension savings between men and women. By 65, this gap widens to £100,000, research has shown.

New analysis from Almond Financial warns it could take until 2114 for the gender pension gap to close completely - a 90-year wait from 2024. Jill Henderson, Scottish Widows Head of Business Development, explained: "Childcare is a huge contributing factor for women, often resulting in them giving up work or reducing their working hours to look after their family."

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Henderson said: "Those women who are in a relationship fare better, but those who are single, divorced or are single mothers are most vulnerable." Sam Robinson, Principal Financial Adviser at Almond Financial, recommended that women should enhance their pension contributions.

Women should increase them beyond the statutory three per cent of annual salary, Robinson said, and take shared parental leave, as well as companies hiking maternity pay and introducing company share schemes for all staff, regardless of position.

"Introducing a contribution match scheme can encourage employees to save more for their retirement," Robinson said. He said: "This opens the door to significant levels of income that can transform lives and the ability to save towards retirement."

Jemima Olchawski, CEO of the Fawcett Society, told People Management: “The few years that a mother spends looking after children is a tiny proportion of her working life but the impact of caring responsibilities follows her into retirement. This must change.

“It isn't good enough to have supportive policies on paper, businesses must make these a reality in the workplace and create genuinely family-friendly cultures.”