Jackie Leiper, Managing Director, Scottish Widows, commented: “Despite vast improvements, women still earn less than men in the UK and this disparity has a detrimental impact on women's financial futures.
“Our latest Women and Retirement Report found a projected 30% gender gap in overall retirement outcomes - in part due to women starting to save later in life. While 19% of men start paying into their pension by 22 years old, just 14% of women do this.
“However, if we can encourage more women to start saving and get themselves invested earlier in their careers, and crucially, do all they can to avoid pausing contributions, better retirement outcomes for women will be on the horizon. There are some actionable steps women can take to combat these financial gender challenges and secure a more comfortable retirement. A sensible first step to consider is establishing how much they currently have saved in their retirement pot, to see just how big the savings gap is. This may require tracking down any ‘lost pots’ from previous jobs using the Pensions Tracing Service and consolidating them in one place. But this effort from individual women must also be supported at policy level. Pension changes from the Government, including addressing the systemic factors which contribute to the gender pension and investment gap is vital too.”
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