Women Need to Plan Early for Their Retirement Says Lyndhurst Financial Management
Although the 1970 Equal Pay Act is nearly 50 years old and great strides have been made towards gender equality in the workplace, it’s still evident that many female staff are not working on a level playing field with their male counterparts, often owing to family pressures and time out to raise children.
It seems that a number of women are still starting – and staying – in jobs that offer lower pay. The recent case of the BBC versus its former China editor Carrie Gracie highlighted the problem of women not being paid the same as men in the same position. It’s also still true that more women than men take time out of their careers to have children, care for ageing parents, or both. They may find on re entering the workplace that their former male peers are now in much higher positions and they may never catch up, no matter how equally talented they are.
This disparity can be reflected when women are facing retirement much further down the line. A Prudential study showed that women retiring in 2018 will have an income that can be as much £5,000 per year less than men, or 29% lower; and one in six will retire with an income below the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum income standard, compared to just one in ten men. Analysis of government data also showed that women will receive around £29,000 less than men in State Pension payments over the course of a typical retirement.
This may be due to lower pay throughout their working lives and time out during their careers resulting in smaller workplace pensions, and possibly a reduced State Pension owing to fewer years of National Insurance contributions.
Johanna Haigh, a financial adviser in the Focus For Women dept at leading Hertfordshire financial planning and financial advice company, Lyndhurst Financial Management comments:
“Lyndhurst’s Focus for Women was set up specifically to tackle this issue and empower women to meet their own financial goals. The sooner advice is sought, the more we can do to help ensure our clients have the best retirement they can hope for.
Although women may appear to be at a disadvantage because of various factors, including lower pay, time out of their careers, caring responsibilities and ultimately likely to live longer than their male partners or counterparts, there are a number of steps they can take which will improve their long term financial outlook and help them to achieve a financially secure retirement. We help our clients to make better financial decisions for themselves and we welcome the opportunity to discuss pensions, investments, mortgages and assets as early as possible – it’s never too soon to start financial planning for your future.”
