How Women Can Avoid Pension Poverty

New figures from Aegon reveal that women's pension pots are less than half the size of men's. So how can poverty in retirement be avoided?

Emma Wall 21 July, 2016 | 2:15PM
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Emma Wall: The latest report from Aegon shows that just 10% of women are ready for retirement. This is no subjective percentage either. This is due purely down to the amount of money people have saved in a pension. Women have on average £20,000 saved into pension and men have more than double that £52,500.

Women should not rely on the state pension either. The new flat rate state pension has come into play, but sadly less than 20% of people will actually qualify for it and women are in the danger zone for this because of course they work smaller hours for a shorter period of time. Due to the fact that in Western society women are primarily the child rearers.

So what can women do to make up this shortfall to make sure that they don’t find themselves in poverty in retirement.

Well firstly if you are in work and paying into workplace scheme maximise those contributions because for many employers they will be obliged to match them and of course you get a top up from the government as well. If you are used to work, you can still make contributions to a workplace scheme. You won't have those contributions matched by your employer. But you will benefit from the mass investment that is being made on behalf of those scheme members with low fees and the power of compound interest.

Don’t rely on the state pension, maximize your workplace contributions, and if you find yourself with many different workplace pots look at the one that is performing best for you and consider consolidation. 

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Emma Wall  is former Senior International Editor for Morningstar

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