NEST comments on Scottish Widows report findings

Commenting on the findings of the eighth annual Scottish Widows Women and Pensions report, Helen Dean, Managing Director for Scheme Development at NEST, said:
 
'These findings make sobering reading, but help is at hand. For as little as £2.37 on average per week, automatic enrolment will help around 5.5 million women start saving towards a pension for the first time. The pension reforms mean that their own savings will be added to by tax relief and contributions from their employer, which is a benefit really worth having.
  
'Many women have been excluded from saving for a pension because they didn't earn enough or employers didn't offer one. But for the first time, automatic enrolment will give millions of women – many of them hard working mothers – the right to a workplace pension that will be paid into by their employer and the government. We hope this will go a long way towards helping women achieve a tomorrow worth saving for.'
  
NEST is a new national pension scheme established to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost scheme available to all employers to help them meet their new duties under automatic enrolment. We've designed the scheme around the needs of people who are largely new to pension saving with clear communications and easy online access for administration.
  
NEST has a public service obligation to accept any employer who wants to use the scheme to meet their duties, large or small, as a sole scheme or alongside other provision. NEST has a legal duty to act in the interests of its members.

Notes 

Latest figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show there are 11 million workers eligible for automatic enrolment who are not currently saving into a workplace pension. (‘Workplace pension reform: digest of key analysis' DWP, July 2012)

90 per cent of those who will be automatically enrolled earn under £40,000 per year (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2008-2009)

Median earnings among this group are £20,100 (Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, 2008-2009)