{"id":120543,"date":"2025-11-07T13:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/120543\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T13:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T13:18:14","slug":"pension-crisis-looms-as-millions-will-have-to-work-until-86-to-achieve-a-comfortable-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/120543\/","title":{"rendered":"Pension crisis looms as millions will have to work until 86 to achieve a comfortable retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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<p>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<p>That means many would need to continue working until the age of 86 to secure equivalent financial stability in retirement.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The report highlights the deep divide in retirement readiness between genders, warning that millions of women risk financial insecurity later in life.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>The figures show that women typically accumulate pension savings worth \u00a369,000, while men amass an average of \u00a3205,000.<\/p>\n<p>That means women\u2019s pension pots amount to just thirty-three per cent of those held by men &#8211; a threefold gap that persists despite widespread awareness of gender inequality in retirement savings.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"8a329\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"f7251bda8ef0d1213f864a0b2b9c94bb\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%201600%20900'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/worried-woman-and-pension-pot.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" alt=\"Worried woman and pension pot\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Women may need to work until age 86 to have a comfortable retirement<\/p>\n<p> | GETTY <\/p>\n<p>Experts describe this imbalance as the gender pensions gap, a long-standing issue that leaves women financially disadvantaged in later life.<\/p>\n<p>The contrast between male and female retirement savings reflects wider structural inequalities within the labour market that accumulate over decades.<\/p>\n<p>The study, conducted in 2024, found little progress since previous research highlighted the issue four years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Analysts say that extended periods away from paid work remain the biggest factor driving the divide.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"51d3c\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"449f39a9190c070c1cb23ea99f516a31\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202122%201413'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/lady-working.jpg\" width=\"2122\" height=\"1413\" alt=\"Lady working\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Time out of paid work is the leading cause of the gender pension gap, analysts say<\/p>\n<p> | <\/p>\n<p>GETTY<\/p>\n<p>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<p>That gap continues to widen as investment growth compounds over time.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" id=\"f4e25\" data-rm-shortcode-id=\"92bc9caf0cf0dcf8de6b7ddcc0bdefec\" data-rm-shortcode-name=\"rebelmouse-image\" class=\"rm-shortcode rm-lazyloadable-image \" lazy-loadable=\"true\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns='http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg'%20viewBox='0%200%202121%201414'%3E%3C\/svg%3E\" data-runner-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/woman-worried-at-laptop.jpg\" width=\"2121\" height=\"1414\" alt=\"Woman worried at laptop\"\/><\/p>\n<p>This is the third joint study by now:pensions and the Pensions Policy Institute examining the gender pensions gap<\/p>\n<p> | GETTY<\/p>\n<p>Samantha Gould, Head of PR and Campaigns at now:pensions, said: &#8220;For far too many in our society, a comfortable retirement remains out of reach, usually through no fault of their own.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>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<p>This is the third joint study by now:pensions and the Pensions Policy Institute examining the gender pensions gap.<\/p>\n<p>The report puts forward five policy recommendations aimed at ensuring fairer access to retirement savings across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>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&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[114,268,85,46,2101,43,5898,266,267,52701],"class_list":["post-120543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-money","tag-news","tag-pensions","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-sgg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}