'Growing gender gap' in pension income

Tuesday, February 16th 2010

A growing disparity between men and women's pensions has been noted by Prudential.

In its Class of 2010 retirement survey the organisation discovered a gap of £7,424 for the average pension.

Women can expect to have around £12,169 on average, while male retirees have some £19,595 in the pot.

Furthermore, it was noted that women's pensions have dropped 11 per cent since 2009.

Director of pensions and annuities at the firm Karin Brown said the reason for such a gap is because some women are affected by a career break when they have children.

"But there is plenty of scope for women who are working and contributing to a pension to help reduce this deficit in future," she added.

Overall the amount of money people could expect to receive in a pension was found to have decreased since last year.

Residents living in the south-east would receive the highest annual income in the UK, it was reported.

Last week Dr Ros Altmann predicted that annuity rates on British pensions would continue to fall.