The gender gap There’s a gender gap when it comes to the value of women’s pension pots compared to men. At age 65, women’s pension savings are typically at 20% of an equivalent man’s pension.7 While auto-enrolment has been successful in increasing participation among women, there are groups of women still excluded from auto-enrolment because of their low earnings and/or part-time work including those with multiple part-time jobs.8 The gender pay gap in the UK is still around 15%.9 Over time this pay gap contributes to a significant difference in the value of accrued retirement savings. • Men benefit more from pension tax relief, accounting for 71% of total relief claimed due to higher earnings on average.10 • At retirement men’s pension wealth is as much as double that of women, (£130,000 versus £260,000) but the differences in accrued wealth are also evident at much younger ages.11 • The impact of this difference in accrued pension wealth is exacerbated by the fact that women typically live longer and so have to fund a longer period in retirement. • Our research shows that while equal proportions of men and women agreed that saving for the future was important, more women (52%) than men (44%) were worried that they would not have enough money when they retire. Despite being more likely to be concerned, fewer women (48%) than men (63%) said they were taking a more active role in considering their future and whether they are saving enough for retirement. While auto-enrolment has increased the number of women in pension schemes, there’s still work to be done to extend access to pension saving among women A decade of auto-enrolment: has it helped or hindered saving psychology? 21
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