Pensions income gender gap looms

Women who fail to contribute to a pension fund could be leaving themselves open to difficulty during their retirement years, a pensions expert has claimed.

Laura Goodman, director of corporate communications at Rockingham Retirement, said an increasing number of women are not putting money aside for retirement.

She made the comments after research by Standard Life found that while women are likely to live an average of nine years longer than men, only 38% are planning for their retirement. This is compared to 50% of men.

“You’ve got a percentage of women that still are looking after the home and bringing up children and they are going through years of not contributing towards a pension,” Goodman said.

The situation threatens to create a “pension income gender gap,” she added.

“I think women tend to leave pensions to the men and advertising is always really geared towards males.”

“There is not enough awareness out there for women about the importance of this.”

Discuss this in the Finance Markets forums

Story link: Pensions income gender gap looms