Worries about job insecurity and debt during the recession are causing women to ignore warnings about the poor state of their pension savings, according to a report published today.

While the percentage of the total population saving adequate amounts into a pension has risen in the past year, Scottish Widows has found that women are lagging behind men when it comes to saving for their retirement.

This year, 59 per cent of men are saving adequately for old age, compared with 47 per cent of women. This 12 per cent gender gap is up from 9 per cent last year.

Women have always found it more difficult to save for retirement because they are more likely to take a career break to bring up children and tend to earn less than men.

However, Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development for Scottish Widows, said that the uncertain outlook for the job market had exacerbated the problem. The number of women who believe that job insecurity will prevent them from saving in the coming year has risen from 6 per cent last year to 12 per cent.

Debt is also proving to be a barrier to saving for women. On average, women owe about £1,000 more than men on credit cards, store cards and loans. As a result, they owe, on average, £12,156 in non-mortgage debt, compared with £11,080 for men.

Many women recognise that they are putting their retirement plans at risk, but appear to be unwilling or unable to rectify the problem. About 26 per cent of women who could afford to pay into a pension and who need to do so are failing to contribute to one — nearly double the 15 per cent of men in a similar position who are failing to save.

Nearly half — 44 per cent — of women who are not saving into a private pension said that they believed that they would never pay into one.

Women who are saving are contributing less to their pensions than men, with women who belong to defined contribution schemes paying only about £90 a month, compared with £168 for men. Women with private pensions pay in about £184 a month, compared with £331 for men.

Mr Naismith said that some women over the age of 50 appeared to have given up all hope of putting aside a decent nest egg to live on in retirement. Only 52 per cent of women in this age bracket are saving enough, down from 57 per cent last year.

He said: “During the economic downturn overall pensions savings have increased, but this is mainly among men and the gender gap has actually widened compared to last year. In a climate when people need to be saving more than ever for their futures, it is worrying that women over 50 are actually saving less than previous years.”

The survey Women’s pensions today and tomorrow, conducted by YouGov for Scottish Widows, questioned 5,007 people over the age of 30 and earning at least £10,000 a year.

Pensions are not the only form of saving suffering in the recession. The amount of money people have in savings accounts has dived by more then a fifth during the past seven months, according to a survey by Investec Private Bank. Britons have an average of £14,000 in deposit accounts, down from £18,000 in March when the Bank of England base rate was cut to a record low of 0.5 per cent.

Wind-up warning

— About 75 final-salary pension plans have such large funding shortfalls that they will wind up in the next two years, forcing 15,000 members into the Pension Protection Fund, unless they take radical action, Hewitt Associates said. The pensions consultant said that the schemes could be saved if the trustees overhauled their investment strategy, turning to alternative assets such as derivatives and infrastructure.

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