Blog entries tagged Pensions

New flat-rate pension will have mixed effect on women

Anna Ritchie — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 11:03:06 +0100

The UK Government has announced that a new, simpler, flat-rate pension will be introduced from April 2017. Women are being held up as one of the main beneficiaries by the government but it is far from clear whether this is actually the case.

Currently, the basic state pension in £107.45 per week but this can be topped up to £142.70 with means-tested pension credit and state second pension (which is based on national insurance contributions). The new changes will see peopleRead More...

The real root of women's inequality in retirement

Anna Ritchie — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 10:29:18 +0100

Research has revealed that Scotland has the second-worst gender pensions gap in the UK. A report by Prudential has found that women in Scotland can expect to receive more than one-third less than men when they retire, with an average annual income of £10,029 compared with £17,539 for their male counterparts.

The media has largely focused on the fact that the gender pensions gap has narrowed, although this is because men’s income has fallen as opposed to an increase iRead More...

Research reveals the majority of women can't afford to save for retirement

Anna Ritchie — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 12:42:23 +0100

Research has revealed that the number of women saving enough for their retirement has reached a seven year high. The Scottish Widows Women and Pensions Report 2011 has found that 50% of women are now saving adequately for their retirement, up from 43% in 2010. It’s not all good news though as the research also shows that more women are saving nothing at all towards their retirement, 23% compared with 17% of men. Furthermore, 71% of women say they can't afford to save long term compared Read More...

Government U-turn on women’s pension age but millions still to lose out

Anna Ritchie — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 11:13:12 +0100

The UK coalition government has announced that it is to delay the planned increase in state pension age to 66 until October 2020.

The government had planned to accelerate the raising of the state pension age for women from 60 to 65 in 2018, two years earlier than previously planned. The changes announced yesterday mean that the maximum amount of women will have is now 18 months instead of two years. Although the move will benefit 245,000 women, 2.3 million women across the UK wiRead More...

Government pushes ahead with plans to raise state pension age for women

Anna Ritchie — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:29:13 +0100

The UK coalition government has won a vote in the House of Commons to take forward plans to raise the state pension age for women. 500,000 women will now have to wait 18 months to two years longer than they expected before they can collect their state pension, costing them up to £15,000 each.

The equalisation of the state pensioRead More...