Women more likely than men to have only the basic state pension to survive on after divorce
A recently published report outlines some alarming statistics on women’s pensions. Women still end up with less pension income than men in the UK; currently 40% less than men on average upon retirement.
NEST are a workplace pension scheme who have investigated the gender pension gap at retirement. Its findings demonstrate how critical it is to consider pensions upon divorce or separation, something which many simply do not discuss or factor into negotiations.
NEST suggests the average woman working full-time in the UK could, when she retires, have a significant gender pension gap of £41,000 .
The NEST report also states that:
‘On average, women still earn less than men, with the pay gap still standing at 8.9% overall.
Women are also more likely than men to:
- take breaks from work to undertake caring responsibilities
- work part-time (42% of women, compared to 15% of men)
- part-time work pays less per hour on average than full-time work
- earn below £10,000 in any one job
- be excluded from workplace pensions saving altogether.
COVID-19 was also considered in the report, through the wide-ranging impact on the economy. During the first half of 2020, a substantial number of workers were furloughed or asked to work reduced hours, and many are worried about their finances and the effect on pensions.
The report states: ‘Before the pandemic, the Money Advice Service found that women were 58% of those who it considered to be ‘struggling’, its most financially vulnerable group. According to the Women’s Budget Group, the Covid-19 crisis threatens to strain women’s finances further, particularly because women are more likely to be on casual, ‘zero-hours’, contracts’.
(You can read the full Nest report ‘filling the gaps’ at this link.)[https://nestviews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Gender_paper_Filling_the_gaps_final.pdf]