I was reading an article recently about something called ‘The motherhood penalty’ and it made me think is it any wonder working mothers have a much lower pension than their male counterparts when it comes to retirement? 
 
According to some reports the gender pensions gap is more than double the gender pay gap, with the average female pensioner £7,000 a year worse off than her male equivalent.*
 
This is mainly due to working mothers’ earnings potential quite often being reduced due to career breaks and maternity leave; in addition to the impact of part-time work or going into a lower paid role so they can manage the needs of their family. Some have to leave work altogether, in particular, if they have more than one child to care for as childcare costs can be an impossible consideration. According to the Family and Childcare Trust, parents now pay an average of over £6,600 per year, for just a part-time nursery place in the UK. In some cases, it simply isn’t worth parents returning to work after having children, which will, of course, impact their retirement savings. 
 
If you would like advice about what the future and retirement might look like, then our team can help. Our role is to gain a good understanding of our clients’ cash flow and help advise where and when they can start to increase their pension contributions, so they are still on track to achieve their retirement goals whilst also juggling the commitments of a young family. 

* Sourced from The People's Pension, 13th May 2019