Research: Are women saving enough for their future?

Women must do more to ensure they are saving enough for their retirement according to the Scottish Widows Women and Retirement Report, which is now in its 11th year.

The annual report has long been a temperature check on women’s attitudes to retirement saving and in recent years the story has been a more positive one. The introduction of auto-enrolment has been instrumental in ensuring that more women than ever are saving for retirement and the number of women now considered to be saving ‘adequately’ continues to rise – hitting 52% in 2015 (up from 40% only two years ago).

This is only part of the story though. This year’s report highlights several concerns for female savers. In particular, approximately a quarter of women earn less than the £10,000 required to be automatically enrolled, meaning that they are missing out on that saving opportunity.

For those that are saving, the proportion of women who don’t understand how much they need to save to achieve the level of income they’re looking for in retirement is worryingly high. Of those we spoke to 71% admitted that they didn’t know how much they would need to save and often those who did express a view thought that the pot they’d need was significantly less than their male counterparts.

This is an area where employers can really help. Women are more likely than men to turn to their employer for information on pension saving, so providing access to tools and information in the workplace can help point female workers in the right direction.

This article was written by Lynn Graves, head of business development, Scottish Widows