How changing work patterns can affect retirement outcomes
Whether an employee changes their work patterns - from full-time to part-time, takes a career break, or adjusts hours etc - it can significantly affect their future retirement income.
Until recently, it’s been difficult to get a clear picture of what these changes might mean in practice. Being able to view both a current projection and an adjusted one based on changes to working patterns in a simple format can provide employees with a valuable perspective.
Why clearer understanding matters
People move to part-time work for many reasons – caring responsibilities, health challenges or simply a desire to adjust the balance between work and home life. These changes can be positive and can allow people to remain in employment while continuing to earn and save, but they may also reduce the amount going into their pension. Over time, this can influence the income they receive in retirement.
Research from the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement shows that women are particularly affected by changes in working patterns. Life events such as motherhood, divorce, childcare and menopause often lead to shifts in hours or time away from the workforce. This, in turn, can affect their ability to save.
Standard Life’s research, Caught in a Gap – the Role of Employers in Enabling Women to Build Better Pensions, highlights that by the age of 50, when one in four women have caring responsibilities, men (aged 45-54) are contributing around 50% more per month (£80) into their pensions.
The Retirement Voice 2025 report also found that men were more likely than women both to have increased their pension contributions and to feel positive about their current financial situation.
Taken together, these insights underline the need for practical and more personalised information to support better decision-making.
Turning insight into understanding
If employees can model how changes, like working part-time or taking a career break, might affect their future income, they can better understand the long-term implications of the decisions they’re making now.
Within Standard Life’s Retirement Income Tool, for example, there’s a new feature that allows employees to compare alternative scenarios side by side.
These personalised projections can also highlight practical steps employees may take to offset any reduction in contributions, such as increasing payments for a period of time or checking their nominated retirement date.
Supporting financial wellbeing
For employers, tools that help employees understand the long-term impact of their financial decisions can play a helpful role within a wider financial wellbeing strategy. Many organisations recognise the effect that financial uncertainty can have on employees, particularly during periods of change.
Clear, accessible insight into how working pattern changes could affect future retirement income can help reduce that uncertainty and prompt more informed conversations about long-term planning between employers and employees.
Giving employees confidence
Working patterns are becoming more flexible, and many employees will move in and out of different arrangements over the course of their careers. Understanding how those changes may affect long-term retirement income is therefore becoming increasingly important.
Clear and personalised insight can help employees plan with more confidence and make informed decisions that reflect both their current circumstances and their long-term goals. Over time, this improved understanding can support stronger engagement with retirement planning as working lives continue to evolve.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Standard Life
Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income.
