The average woman needs €30,600 p.a. in retirement to live comfortably but has saved a retirement income of just €1,500p.a. This excludes the maximum state pension of almost €12,400 p.a. This is according to a recent survey commissioned by Standard Life of over 500 women.
The pensions ‘gap’ for the average woman is approximately €16,000 p.a. (€30k minus €14k) or an additional pension savings pot of €370k (based on a 4.3% annuity rate for a 65 year old).
The survey finds that 63% of women don’t know how to start a pension and 75% of women don’t realise pensions are tax efficient.
Furthermore, 69% of women don’t know that tax relief on pensions is worth up to 40% of the contributions made.
Commenting on the research, Standard Life’s Women’s Pension’s Spokeswoman, Aileen Power says, "The best case scenario for the average woman is a retirement income of €13,900 p.a. which is not enough to live on comfortably. We know women expect a high standard of living in retirement, winter sun holidays, dining out, socialising etc. That’s not going to happen on less than €14,000 p.a."
According to Power, women need to start talking more about pensions with friends and family, understanding how fantastic the tax breaks are, asking to join their work pension scheme and using pensions calculators to figure out how much they need to save.
Standard Life launched the survey to mark the fifth anniversary of National Women’s Pensions Day which it launched in 2013 to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8th. Standard Life is planning a women’s pension’s conference in the summer for its female customers and advisers to promote awareness of the importance of women saving adequately for when they stop working.
Source: www.businessworld.ie
