Pensions can come in the form of state pensions or personal pots. For personal pensions, how useful they’ll be in retirement will depend greatly on how much money has been put into them over time. The government has encouraged the UK population to embrace pensions in recent years by launching the auto enrolment scheme, which forces employers to create pensions for eligible employees and then contribute to them.

Michelle Gribbin, the Chief Investment Officer at Profile Pensions, commented on the findings: “Our analysis lays bare the huge disparity between male and female pension pots. This gender pensions gap is endemic in our society, born out of hundreds of years of cultural factors such as salary discrepancy.

“There is a lot of awareness around the gender pay gap but we also want to highlight the huge disparity that many women approaching retirement are facing.
“We would like to see providers and employers being more transparent about how this retirement shortfall comes about.
“For example, what seems like slightly lower pension contributions (due to factors including a lower salary), invested over the long-term generate a sizeable financial shortfall.

“A heightened awareness of pensions is the best way that we can make sure this gap narrows. Figures like today’s should be a wakeup call to women across the UK to take action and make sure that they manage what savings they do have to reach their best potential.”

In light of the worrying results, Michelle provided her top tips for affected women:

One of these groups has become very well known in the UK, the WASPI organisation. WASPI have been pushing for pension equality for years now, mainly in relation to state pension changes which they deem to be unfair.

With the upcoming budget, they will be keeping an eye on any changes that the government introduces. As a spokesperson from WASPI detailed: “WASPI women across the country will be wanting to see fair transitional arrangements for 1950s born women announced in the budget. This cohort of women have been penalised by the sharp increase in the State Pension age and have suffered huge financial losses due to the lack of adequate notice.

“The pension pay gap is especially devastating for 1950s born who also suffered from and fought against the gender pay gap when they were working. Whilst the State Pension age may have been equalised for men and women, pension incomes have not.

“WASPI has always been supportive of the equalisation of the State Pension age and the crux of our campaign is that these changes were not communicated to 1950s born women effectively. “While action to reduce the pensions pay gap and the gender pay gap are extremely welcome, for WASPI women, these reforms are too late.

“A bridging pension for all women affected by changes to the State Pension age is the only solution to this ongoing issue which has had a devastating impact on so many women’s lives as well as their families.”