Women need to be more financially prepared for retirement

Latest research (issued today by Prudential) finds that women are less prepared for retirement than men, something which is evident in HSBC's own research issued earlier this year.

Ian Martin, head of pensions & retirement income for HSBC Insurance in the UK, considers some of the reasons why pension apathy is stronger among women: “It has been well documented that women are falling short of ensuring they have adequate retirement provision place and we have found that six out of ten women are not currently contributing to a pension scheme.

“A key reason we are seeing for this seemingly lacklustre view to retirement planning is a lack of understanding of exactly when - and how – women can pay into a pension. We found that 44 per cent of HSBC respondents thought they had to be working to make pension contributions and only 36 per cent were aware that anybody can contribute to a pension on behalf of somebody else.

“Current pension reforms indicate that by the time a 27 year-old women reaches the age at which she can claim basic state pension, she would be entitled to around £135 a week, but only if she has made National Insurance contributions for most of her life.

"At HSBC we are working hard to get the message across to everybody that retirement planning should start sooner rather than later and we are seeing positive signs that people are taking pension provision more seriously - but as current research shows, there is still a long way to go.”