Rishi Sunak is set to release his autumn Budget over the coming months and reportedly, the Chancellor may use it to reign in spending and cover the costs associated with coronavirus. However, Mr Sunak has also been urged to address widening pension inequalities and tackle the issue of caring costs.
“But I’ve now missed five years of employment. A guy could have been at work for five years.
“He has been there, and he can tell his manager about what he has done, and they will raise his pay and give him a bonus. I haven’t had that opportunity.
“Although I’m more than capable of doing the same job that this guy has done, I’m still going to be below him. This means I can’t contribute as much to my pension.
“Women are penalised by this whole culture that expects them to stay at home with the child. Even though they have the same skills and capabilities. You could say that it was my choice to stay off with my children. But the reason I did that was because of the cost of childcare. It was £2000 a month!
“That was my whole salary. Why would I work to pay for only the nursery? Without me working, we’re still on the breadline but at least we don’t have to pay for nursery. You’re stuck in a rut, and you can’t save into your pension. There are so many more men in influential positions, and they don’t seem to care to change this, they just blindside the issue.”
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David Olivo, a 41 year old from Eastbourne, provided insight on these difficulties from a male perspective: “Companies should continue making pension contributions during maternity leave at the rate that women would get if they don’t leave work, so they aren’t penalised for taking time off.
“The idea of shared parental leave is fantastic.
“It’s much better in Germany than here, as men get two months paid leave when their child is born.
“Under the current shared parental leave system, I wouldn’t want to take paternity leave as it means my wife would get less than the full year.
“I wouldn’t take extra leave if it was to the detriment of the mum.
“Also, the finances don’t work. My baby is five months old, and I didn’t take any time off, it would have been a big drop, like £1000 a week less. I’ve got a friend that’s a stay-at-home dad because his wife earns a lot more than him.
“My employers don’t offer parental leave. If they had offered six months of paid leave to me for becoming a new father, I would have taken it, you’d be crazy not to. I didn’t get offered anything. Even a month would have been so helpful. Spending time with your baby growing up is much better than having to do your job.
“At the moment, dads have it very difficult, they can’t support their families enough. I have a friend whose baby has to get fed through a tube until she is five months, and he hasn’t been able to take any time off. Often the mum is left to do it all.”
Romi Savova, the CEO of PensionBee, concluded by urging Rishi Sunak to take action: “The Chancellor should unleash a boom in female employment and do everything in his power to enable women to participate in equal paid work to men in order to eradicate the gender pension gap once and for all.”
The extent of the gender pension gap was highlighted recently by analysis from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) and more2life.
According to CEBRs research, women are missing out on £183,936 compared to men in retirement, despite contributing a larger percentage of income to their pension pots.
Taking the average earnings of each gender in 2020, the research suggested men (£3,184) are able to contribute more than women (£2,340) to their pension pot – leaving the average woman needing to work an additional 14.5 years to catch up.
Dave Harris, the Chief Executive Officer at more2life, commented: “Although women appear to be better at saving into their pension, they still face a retirement that is less comfortable and financially secure than their male counterparts.
“The stark difference in retirement incomes highlights the need to address the root causes of financial gender inequality and better support women as they make choices around how to use their assets both in the lead up to and during retirement.”
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