Pension savings buckle under weight of recession

Pensions savings have finally been rocked by the recession, with women over the age of 50 hit the hardest, according to a survey from Scottish Widows. In 2009, 52% of women surveyed said they were saving enough, but that has fallen to just 38% this year. Overall, the Scottish Widows Pensions Index, which tracks the percentage of those saving adequately for retirement, has fallen from 54% in 2009 to 48% in 2010. The report, conducted in tandem with the company's average savings ratio survey, shows both women and men are saving less for their pensions than last year, but women are still lagging far behind. Just 43% of women are saving adequately compared to 47% last year; while 52% of men are saving enough in 2010 against 59% the previous year. The group hit the hardest is the over-50s, the group that should be saving the most. Only half of this group is saving enough to meet their retirement needs. The percentage of women over 50 not saving at all for their retirement has increased from 22% last year to 26% this year, suggesting that they are starting to give up on pensions savings altogether. A non-saver is likely to be female, a parent, and self-employed; while a saver is likely to be male, working in the public sector, and a high-earner (earning £30,000-£50,000). Scottish Widows questioned 5,046 people in April, of which 1,856 were eligible to take part in the surveys. Of that sample, 1,094 were men and 762 were women. Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development at Scottish Widows, says: "It is a worrying sign that the group most vulnerable when it comes to retirement savings is women over 50. While women's career patterns often make it hard to save consistently for retirement, this is the time when they should be saving the most." He claims that, instead of putting people off saving for their futures, the economic downturn should have been the trigger that everyone needed to save more. "For those that are able to put more aside for their retirement, we recommend they save 12% of their income to ensure that they have a comfortable retirement." This is all very well, but the same survey highlighted the fact that while 25% of people with a pension who are not yet retired want to save more for retirement, 29% can't save more than they currently are. Almost half of people (45%) feel worse off than a year ago and 20% saved less than they had done previously in the last 12 months.