(Some) women miss out on retirement

New research from HSBC reveals that while more women than ever in the UK have pensions, confusion over eligibility means almost two million of them are losing out on potential pension income.

In 2005, when the bank started tracking consumer attitudes to pension planning, just over a third of women surveyed (37%) aged 18-60 were contributing to a pension. Three years on, HSBC's survey has revealed a marked increase in the number of women taking control of their retirement futures, with over half of those questioned (54%) now paying into a pension.

While HSBC's figures show that the number of women not planning for retirement has almost halved since 2005, coming in at under six million (32% compared to 62% in 2005), the extent to which women understand retirement planning hasn't improved at all the research shows.

Of these women without retirement provision almost a third (32%) admitted they weren't contributing because they aren't currently working or only work part-time. That's almost 2 million women failing to make pensions contributions because they believe they're ineligible (same figure as 2005).

Meanwhile, 28% of the women not planning for retirement said they believed they were too young to be prioritising pension provision (compared to only 7% in 2005). Only 2% of women respondents said they were relying on a State Pension to fund their retirement (down from 8% in 2005).

Of all the women questioned (with or without pensions) the research found that: 38% incorrectly believe they have to be working to make pension contributions (41% in 2005); 46% were aware that a husband or wife can contribute to their partner's pension, even if they aren't working (even fewer than in 2005 when this figure stood at 53%) and 70% were unaware that anyone could start paying into a pension scheme for someone else (compared to 68% in 2005).

Elsewhere, only 19% were aware that they needed to be in work for 39 years to qualify for a full state pension (NI contributions currently stand at 39 years for women, 44 years for men).

08 May 2008 © Moneyextra.com

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