{"id":553974,"date":"2025-11-07T00:10:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/553974\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T00:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:10:17","slug":"pension-crisis-looms-as-millions-will-have-to-work-until-86-to-achieve-a-comfortable-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/553974\/","title":{"rendered":"Pension crisis looms as millions will have to work until 86 to achieve a comfortable retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Millions of women across Britain could face working into their mid-80s to achieve the same retirement savings as men, according to new research exposing stark gender inequality in pension provision.<\/p>\n

The 2024 analysis reveals that women would need to remain in employment for an extra nineteen years beyond the standard retirement age of 67 to match male pension wealth.<\/p>\n

That means many would need to continue working until the age of 86 to secure equivalent financial stability in retirement.<\/p>\n

Single mothers face an even tougher reality, potentially needing to extend their working lives by 33 years, meaning retirement at 98, to build pension pots comparable to those of men.<\/p>\n

The report highlights the deep divide in retirement readiness between genders, warning that millions of women risk financial insecurity later in life.<\/p>\n

Researchers estimate that closing this pension gap would require women to begin saving from just three years old to retire with the same funds as their male colleagues.<\/p>\n

The figures show that women typically accumulate pension savings worth \u00a369,000, while men amass an average of \u00a3205,000.<\/p>\n

That means women\u2019s pension pots amount to just thirty-three per cent of those held by men – a threefold gap that persists despite widespread awareness of gender inequality in retirement savings.<\/p>\n

\"Worried<\/p>\n

Women may need to work until age 86 to have a comfortable retirement<\/p>\n

| GETTY <\/p>\n

Experts describe this imbalance as the gender pensions gap, a long-standing issue that leaves women financially disadvantaged in later life.<\/p>\n

The contrast between male and female retirement savings reflects wider structural inequalities within the labour market that accumulate over decades.<\/p>\n

The study, conducted in 2024, found little progress since previous research highlighted the issue four years ago.<\/p>\n

Analysts say that extended periods away from paid work remain the biggest factor driving the divide.<\/p>\n

\"Lady<\/p>\n

Time out of paid work is the leading cause of the gender pension gap, analysts say<\/p>\n

| <\/p>\n

GETTY<\/p>\n

Women typically spend around ten years out of employment caring for children or relatives, which research suggests translates into a \u00a339,000 shortfall in pension contributions.<\/p>\n

That gap continues to widen as investment growth compounds over time.<\/p>\n

Caring responsibilities, particularly for single mothers, often force women to pause or reduce their working hours during key earning years, severely impacting their long-term savings.<\/p>\n

Campaigners say the current workplace pension system does not adequately support people who take time out of paid work for family responsibilities, leaving many at a lifelong disadvantage.<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

This is the third joint study by now:pensions and the Pensions Policy Institute examining the gender pensions gap<\/p>\n

| GETTY<\/p>\n

Samantha Gould, Head of PR and Campaigns at now:pensions, said: “For far too many in our society, a comfortable retirement remains out of reach, usually through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n

“These groups are often locked out of the auto-enrolment system, unable to earn enough to put money aside for later and as a result, find themselves on the wrong side of a growing pension savings gap.”<\/p>\n

Ms Gould added that progress has been slow despite repeated warnings. She said the challenges highlighted in 2024 mirror those identified in their 2020 report.<\/p>\n

This is the third joint study by now:pensions and the Pensions Policy Institute examining the gender pensions gap.<\/p>\n

The report puts forward five policy recommendations aimed at ensuring fairer access to retirement savings across the UK.<\/p>\n

These proposals call for reforms to improve auto-enrolment coverage and address structural barriers preventing women from saving adequately for later life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Millions of women across Britain could face working into their mid-80s to achieve the same retirement savings as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":553975,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,1232,12,617,2499,512,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-553974","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-money","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pensions","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-sgg","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115505517229402619","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=553974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/553974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/553975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=553974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=553974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=553974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}