New retirees will have to makes ends meet on less money as new figures show average pensions have fallen in value during the past nine years.
And the pension pay gap between men and women is still widening.
Men are likely to retire with an average income of £19,850 a year, coming from the state pension, other pensions, savings and investments.
Women will have to live on an average 27% less, earning £14,450 a year from all sources in their retirement.
Pensions firm Prudential compiled the figures from research as part of an ongoing set of data kept since 2008.
Unexpected pension payments
The, the pension gap was much wider – at 46% with women looking forward to a £11,300 a year pension, compared to £20,925 for men.
Over the years, the gender pat gap has decreased from £9,500 in 2008 to £5,400 this year.
Prudential retirement income expert Kirsty Anderson said: “It is possible that many women retirees were expecting to receive the new flat rate state pension in full, but having received their illustrations have had to revise their retirement expectations downwards.”
Many women have had to delay retirement due to a rise in the data the state pension is paid.
The amount women are paid may be less than expected because the number of working years to qualify for the full state pension also rose from 30 years to 35.
Financial facts of life
Men and women with less than 35 working years under their belt will be a paid an amount pro rata the maximum of £115.65 a week.
The research also showed that only 40% of women expect to live comfortably off their pension income, compared to 60% of men.
“’It is an unfortunate fact of life that many women will reach retirement having taken breaks during their working lives that will impact the level of state pension they will receive and the size of their pension pot,” said Anderson.
“However, there are a number of steps that anyone in this situation can take prior to giving up work to help improve their retirement prospects.
“These include continuing to make contributions to a pension during career breaks and making voluntary national insurance contributions after returning to work.”
