Scottish Widows comments

on the Government's proposal to allow people to buy up to an additional six years of voluntary NI contributions

Ian Naismith continues: "While this move by the Government is great news for women, there is still a long way to go to support women, and encourage them to save for the long term rather than for a rainy day, which is more prevalent amongst women." Commenting on the Government's proposal to allow people to buy up to an additional six years of voluntary National Insurance contributions, Ian Naismith, head of pensions market development, Scottish Widows said: "This move by the Government is a great step for giving women a better incentive to save for the future.

Having entitlement to a basic state pension can make a big difference to women's incomes in retirement, including reducing the impact of means-testing.

This measure could help a lot of women at a relatively modest cost." Scottish Widows Women and Pensions Report, now in it's fourth year reveals that women are still falling far short of men when it comes to pensions savings.

This 'pensions gender gap' reveals that 55% of men who could and should be saving for retirement are saving adequately - compared to just 46% of women.

Scottish Widows has called for the Government to review pension incentives to encourage more women to build up pensions in their own right.

The proposals include: a rebadging of pension tax relief to make it simpler to understand - for example, by making it clear that for every ?4 an individual contributes the Government will add in ?1; the ability for pension contributions made by spouses and registered civil partners to be treated as made by the payer rather than the recipient for tax and limits purposes; limited ability to withdraw pension funds before retirement to meet specified costs; and an overhaul of means-tested benefits, including a review of the effect on housing benefit and discounting of ISA savings and small amounts of pension from means-testing.

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