Pensions  

Women urged to regularly review pensions

Women urged to regularly review pensions
(Cottonbro studio/Pexels)

It is especially important for women to regularly check in on their pensions, Now Pensions has warned. 

The firm said on average women miss out on £39,000 of pension savings. 

This is through spending significant periods of time away from the workforce to raise families or take on other caring responsibilities.

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Lizzy Holliday, director of public affairs and policy at Now Pensions, said it was important for everyone, but especially women to regularly review their pension pots. 

She said: "Retirement can seem a long way off, but there are things you can do today that can help improve your pension saving and contribute to the retirement you want in later years."

Holliday advised checking pension pots annually and comparing it against the PLSA Retirement Lifetime Standards.

She added: “On average women miss out on £39,000 of pension savings through spending significant periods of time away from the workforce to raise families or take on other caring responsibilities.

"This makes it even more important for them to regularly review their pension and see what actions they can take now to support their retirement."

Holliday said Now Pensions was calling for a family carer's top-up to the pension. 

This would see government pay the equivalent of an employer’s contribution into carers’ pensions, at the same level as the National Living Wage, which it said could deliver a fairer pensions system by topping up the pension savings of three million women and 300,000 men.

Today (September 16) a report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies found most workers make low contributions to their pensions, despite auto-enrolment increasing overall pension saving.

It found up to 40 per cent of private sector employees with defined contribution pension schemes are on course to have individual incomes that fall short of standard benchmarks in retirement. 

tara.o'connor@ft.com

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