More men in Scotland saving for retirement than women

Research by Scottish Widows found 51 per cent of women are sufficiently putting money aside for their later years compared to 62 per cent of men.

More Scottish men save for retirement than women.

The number of women who said they were saving was up one point from last year, but still lags slightly behind the UK female average of 52 per cent.

The gender gap of 11 per cent is wider than UK national average of eight percentage points, the latest Women and Retirement report showed.

It also revealed women north of the border are more pessimistic about retirement than elsewhere in the UK, with 54 per cent saying they believe they are not preparing adequately.

Across the UK, almost three quarters (71 per cent) of women also do not know how much they would need to save for what they would consider to be a comfortable retirement, compared to only half (52 per cent) of men.

For Scottish women this figure is even higher at 75 per cent, against just 51 per cent of men.

However, 44 per cennt of Scottish women have started saving into a workplace pension thanks to auto enrolment compared to a national average of 42 per cent.

Jackie Leiper, retirement expert at Scottish Widows, said: “While there are small but encouraging signs that women are starting to save more for their retirement, a worrying gender gap still persists, as women continue to fall behind their male counterparts as they get older.

“Whether it’s having a family, taking a career break or changing working patterns, we need to ensure that life changes impacting women do not jeopardise their future security.

“This is particularly important given the decision to freeze the auto-enrolment threshold at £10,000, which is estimated to have excluded around 170,000 people from auto-enrolment, of whom 120,000 are women.

“The need for pension providers, the government and employers to offer more targeted engagement, education and support for women is becoming more prevalent as they navigate their way through the complex savings environment, often juggling the demands of family and work.

“This should include thinking about specific timings of the information to ensure that women are more engaged and in tune with how what they put away now translates into greater financial security in future.”

The report is based on research among more than 5,000 people across the UK, including 562 in Scotland.