A THIRD OF WOMEN HAVE NO PENSION PLAN

A recent survey has found that 34% of women do not have a private pension plan compared to 17% for men.

Of those women, 41% have no intention of investing in a pension compared to 34% for men.  17% of women said they wouldn’t invest in a pension until at least 40 years of age and 9% not until they were 50!  The survey revealed that 65% will only have the state pension at retirement age with 34% stating they will be falling back on other savings.  There were 21% that said that they would be reliant on their partner’s pensions, savings and investments and 17% will have to keep working later in life.

How People without a Private Pension Plan intend to pay for their Retirement

One in three people (35%) over the last 12 months have stopped paying into a pension scheme.  The reasons for this are,

• 28% could not afford the payments any longer
• 20% would rather use the money for other things
• 14% would prefer to use the money to move onto the property ladder

All this comes at a time when auto enrolment has been in place for a minimum of just over 16 months, dependent on employer size (by PAYE scheme size) and the Government increasing auto enrolment contributions to a minimum of 8% from April 2019, with the employee paying 5% of this.

Adrian Lowcock, head of personal investing at Willis Owen, said it is understandable that people are “opting to focus on their financial needs today, such as getting on the property ladder, as opposed to financing their needs in retirement when they stop work…….it’s alarming to see so many people without pension plans, or who have stopped paying into them…….However, it’s never too late to own your financial future and start saving into a pension scheme.”

The survey was undertaken by Willis Own, an online investment service provider, and they questioned 1,070 UK adults.

Source: FTAdviser