Study: Nine out of 10 women facing poverty in retirement

CLOSE to nine out of 10 women are facing poverty in retirement, according to a survey.

Research shows that although women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including 93% of food and 92% of holidays, they are less financially prepared than men for retirement and for unforeseen life events such as redundancy or serious illness.

The results of the Axa survey have been released ahead of a conference in Dublin on Friday called Sheconomy, which is aiming to help professional women to be more financially prepared for their future.

The conference was organised by Zara Mulholland Byrne of Mulholland Life and Pensions in association with Aviva Life and Pensions. “When you visualise your retirement, you might imagine more travel, time for leisure pursuits, dining out more, and generally enjoying your free time. The problem is that all of this costs money,” she said.

“This is the age of the Sheconomy when women are responsible for the greater proportion of consumer spending. Retirement can be a big shock, even for the most highly-paid professionals and that is because most women don’t allocate some of their earnings to fund their retirement. In fact, according to a survey conducted by Axa, 42% of women have no pension.”

Figures show that just one in 10 women will maintain the same quality of life after retirement.

“Statistically women live longer than men, so they have a wider gap of retirement time to fund. Nearly 90% experience a significant drop in income and this can result in a certain loss of independence, spending power and self esteem.”

Ms Mulholland Byrne said that the key to pensions is to start early, rather than to procrastinate. “The earlier you start, the greater the opportunity to build reserves for the future. At the same time, you can start a pension later in life and still improve your retirement prospects considerably.”