When I was a Director at The Value Engineers, I worked closely with Scottish Widows.  I loved working on this iconic brand which was set up in 1815 to take care of women and children who lost their fathers, brothers and husbands in the Napoleonic Wars. 

It’s been a industry trailblazer brand for women since its inception and today (over 200 years later) it’s championing women to have a better quality of life in retirement by highlighting the Gender Pension Gap.

The statistics are shocking (worse than the gender pay gap!) and last year Scottish Widows set out to create awareness of the challenges. 

The gender pension gap is the difference in women and men’s pension savings at retirement. Today, the average woman retires with half as much in her pension pot as a man. That’s a monthly private pension income of £600 compared to a man’s £1,300.

This is because the amount people save into their pension is generally a percentage of their salary or income. So the gender pay gap together with anything that reduces income directly affects pension.

Women have less income because they’re more likely to take time out to raise a family, manage caring responsibilities, be in lower paid roles or work part time. 

To achieve financial parity women would need to work for 30 years longer than men or start working from the age of nine!

Scottish Widows is working with other financial providers, lobbying government, workplace pension schemes and sending out the message that there needs to be change so individuals can be better prepared. 

https://www.scottishwidows.co.uk/yourfuture/

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