Retired men in the UK have 70 per cent more income from private and public pensions than women, according to new data.
To mark International Women’s Day, the campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality (Waspi) calculated the income people have to live on in retirement.
They found that women in the UK are, on average, living on just £26 a day, while retired men have an income of £44 a day.
This data uses the latest data from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and private pension wealth stats from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
This disparity in pension provision is particularly stark when it comes to private pensions.
According to the ONS men aged between 65 and 74 have £182,700 in private pension savings while women of the same age have just £25,000 saved up.
Using insurance giant Aviva’s annuity calculator £25,000 delivers a pension of £77.50 per month or £2.50 per day for women, while the
£182,700 that men have saved up gives them a pension of £612.19 per month, equivalent to £20.20 per day.
Meanwhile men get £170.50 a week of State Pension while women get £164.74 per week on average according to the DWP.
The campaign group is campaigning for against changes made to the the state pension, arguing many women were not given sufficient time to make further savings when the pension age for women rose from 60 to 66. It is demanding those women affected get a one-off compensation payment to reflect the government’s failure to communicate these changes.
The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) has been looking into whether changes to the State Pension age were amply communicated when announced in 1995. Last July the Ombudsman said it found ‘failings’ in the way the DWP communicated changes to the women’s State Pension age.
WASPI chair and finance director Angela Madden said: “These new figures show why women were so devastated by the DWP’s maladministration. The lion’s share of that paltry £26 per day comes from State Pension. If women had known they were going to retire up to six years later than they thought, they would have been able to plan better.”
