Up to nine million women are at serious risk of poverty during retirement because they are failing to save enough into a pension, a report has claimed.

The Association of British Insurers (ABI) estimates 4.5 million working women are not putting any money aside towards retirement and a further 4.5 million are failing to save enough.

In its report The Gender Pensions Gap, the group said women were disadvantaged compared with men when it came to making provisions for retirement.

It found 35 per cent of women did not belong to a pension scheme, compared with 25 per cent of men.

Among women who were saving, more than half contributed less than £100 a month to a pension.

Nine per cent of women received a contribution from their employer of more than five per cent of their wages, compared with 15 per cent of men.

The report said women were more likely to have a broken work record as a result of taking time off to look after children or elderly relatives and were more likely to spend any disposable income they had on their children.

They tended to retire earlier and live longer, giving them less opportunity to build up a pension.

Eighty-three per cent of retired women had a total pension income of less than £1,000 a month, compared with 58 per cent of men.

The report put forward a series of proposals to help increase pension saving among women.

The ABI said as about 63 per cent of women's retirement income came from the State, a decent State pension would provide a solid foundation on which to build private saving.

It said the complicated means-testing system needed reforming because it made it difficult for people to decide how much they needed to save.

Employers should be encouraged to pay into staff pension schemes because women were most likely to work for firms which did not contribute.

Joanne Segars, head of pensions and savings at the ABI, said: "Women are clearly at greater risk than men of facing poverty in their retirement."

Wednesday September 08, 2004