Jenny Holt, Proposition Director at Phoenix Group, said:

“The launch of the Insuring Women’s Futures’ Manifesto for Change is a timely reminder of the challenges women face in saving for an adequate retirement. The report we recently sponsored from the Pensions Policy Institute, ‘Generation VeXed: solving the retirement puzzle’, found that women in this generation (those aged 30 to 54) are particularly at risk. Based on current and expected income and asset accumulation, women are more likely to be at high risk, with 60% of those in the highest risk group being women.

“Although female employment rates are increasing, women in the UK are significantly more likely to take time out from work, work part-time and receive lower pay than men, which limits their ability to make pension contributions. As a consequence, women in their late 50s have on average just half the private pension wealth of men the same age, a difference which could equate to over £100,000 on average by age 65. That’s why it’s so important for our industry, regulators and the government to support women at all stages of saving for retirement, to ensure they can have the flexible, adequate and sustainable retirement they deserve.”

-Ends-

Additional information:

A copy of our sponsored report with the Pensions Policy Institute, Generation VeXed: solving the retirement puzzle, can be downloaded here.

Media enquiries:

Shellie Wells
Head of Corporate Communications
Phoenix Group
020 3735 0922 / 07872 414 137
shellie.wells@thephoenixgroup.com

Rachel Esland
PR and Public Affairs Manager
Standard Life Assurance, part of Phoenix Group
0131 245 0489 / 07892 705093
rachel_esland@standardlife.com

Notes to editors

About Phoenix Group and Standard Life Assurance Limited

Phoenix Group is the largest specialist consolidator of heritage life assurance funds in Europe. Its main focus has traditionally been on closed life fund consolidation, where it specialises in the acquisition and management of closed life insurance and pension funds (its heritage business).

Alongside this, it has an open business which manufactures and underwrites new products and policies to support people saving for their future and when they come to retire. This open business is underpinned by a strategic partnership with Standard Life Aberdeen following the Phoenix Group’s acquisition of Standard Life Assurance in 2018. Standard Life Assurance is a long-established expert in workplace pensions, personal pensions, long term savings and retirement solutions, and its customers and clients include individual savers and some of the largest employers in the UK, as well as professional advisers. Phoenix Group also has a market leading brand - SunLife - which sells a range of financial products specifically for the over 50s market.

Phoenix Group is a member of the FTSE 100 index, and has 10 million policyholders and £245 billion of assets under management. It has four operating life companies and operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany.