Survey results: Gender & Financial Wellbeing 2022

This survey was sponsored by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme

1,356 people responded to our survey on how gender affects financial wellbeing.

34% were 61 and above, 17% were 56 – 60, 17% were 50 – 55 and 26% were 45-49.

99% were female.

56.56% were currently employed, 8.63% currently self-employed (with 3.54% being both employed and self employed). 17.11% were not currently working, but were job-seeking and 14.16% were not currently working but also not looking for a job.

69.82% have taken a career break at some point. The reasons for taking a career break were mainly for caring responsibilities (childcare – 78.67%, elder care – 13.44%, other care 6.46% with 16.21% saying they took a career break for other reasons).

Impact on career and working patterns

When asked if they had taken a lower paid job in their career in order to achieve flexibility, the majority said yes (72.79%). 82.67% had worked part time at some point in their working life, with 52.65% of these having worked part time for more than 5 years (27.43% having worked part time for more than 10 years).

54.77% are working part time currently.

62.78% said their career progression has been affected as a result of their caring responsibilities.

Pensions

33.97% have reduced their pension payments as a result of working part time/reduced hours. 14.42% have reduced their pension payments as a result of taking a career break. 23.01% have reduced their pension payments for both of these reasons.

36.98% have stopped their pensions payments as a result of a career break, with 9.34% having stopped their pension payments due to reducing working hours, and 17.53% having stopped pension payments for both these reasons.

The majority of people surveyed (57.79%) stated that they didn’t really understand their pension savings – for example, how to combine / transfer pensions; investment options; deferring your pension or taking it early.

We asked if employers offered financial education or pension awareness sessions. 18.91% said yes, 33.36% said no, 17.83% were not aware (and the rest are not employed)

53% don’t think that their pension will allow them to be financially independent in retirement.

Menopause

9.67% of respondents have had to leave a job due to the menopause.

14.48% have had to reduce their hours due to the menopause. 23.05% say that their career progression has been affected by the menopause. Only 9.6% say their employer has supported them with menopause issues.

Flexible working & other issues

34.97% said they have had to reduce hours or leave work due to other health related issues. 37.33% are able to work flexibly if they need to, but 23.49% require greater flexibility than they currently have.

Only 11.89% of respondents are aware of their employer having a published statement setting out their commitment to reducing the gender pay and gender pensions gap.

25.72% don’t think their employer is supportive of older women in the work place.

Seeking work / working into retirement

Of those who had lost their job in the last 5 years, 30.90% have found it hard to find a new job, with 49.32% thinking this is in part due to ageism.

50.26% think they will have to work beyond the official retirement age.

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