1 in 5 retiring women have no pension

ONE in five women retiring this year has no money saved into a pension, a report warns today.

The Prudential research says women are twice as likely as men to have no company pension.

It says 20 per cent of women who retire this year will depend on the State pension as their only source of retirement income, compared with only 8 per cent of men.

To make matters worse, millions of women do not even get the full State pension, currently worth £102.15 a week, and have to retire on even less money at a time when households bills, from food to petrol, have reached record levels.

The Prudential pointed out that many women who will be relying on the State pension do not even know what it is currently worth. More than a quarter retiring this year either thought it was worth far more than it actually is, or said they ‘simply did not know’.

Vince Smith-hughes, a retirement income expert at the Prudential, said the State pension should merely be ‘a safety net’ for pensioners. He added: ‘For far too many people, the State pension has become the default income option in retirement.’

The Government is about to introduce the biggest shake-up in the pensions industry for a generation. Starting in October, bosses will be forced to pay into a pension for their workers for the first time in an attempt to increase the number of people with a pension.

All workers aged between 22 and the State pension age will be automatically enrolled into a scheme if they earn £8,105 or more. They will be able to opt out. The full State pension will jump by £5.30 next week to £107.45 – the biggest cash increase since 1908.

The Prudential report is based on interviews with 9,614 adults.