Pensions Board and National Women’s Council of Ireland encourage women to address their pension provision now

Thursday 15 March 2007: There is a serious need for women in Ireland to start to focus on their pension provision, a seminar in Dublin was told today. The Pensions Board and the National Women’s Council of Ireland hosted a breakfast seminar and both organisations pointed out the need to address women’s pension provision.

The Pensions Board has launched an updated Women and Pensions Booklet as part of this week’s National Pensions Action Week. The updated booklet is available on its website www.pensionsboard.ie. The booklet deals with issues such as re-entering the workforce, equal pension treatment, maternity, adoptive, parental and carer’s leave and pensions on separation or divorce.

Speaking today at the Women and Pensions seminar, Mary Hutch, Head of Information and Training, Pensions Board said: “The modern, independent woman needs to think about how she will live in retirement and what standard of living she wants to enjoy. The encouraging thing is that we’re finding more and more women contacting us to discuss their pension options.

“The facts are that women on average earn less than men, are more likely to be working part-time, have fragmented career patterns and are also living longer than men, all of which leave them particularly susceptible to poverty in later life. These are factors which make it all the more important for women to take out a pension than men. Despite these factors, women still fall behind their male counterparts in terms of pension coverage at 50.6% compared to 58.3% of men. Furthermore we find that just over one in three PRSAs are being taken out by women. Pensions Action Week provides an opportunity for women throughout Ireland to take the first step to addressing their pension,” said Ms Hutch.

Addressing the seminar today, Dr. Joanna McMinn, Director, National Women’s Council of Ireland said: “Every aspect of the current pension system, militates against women having an income that provides a decent standard of living in old age. It is critical that in our attempts to encourage women to think about pensions and having a decent income in older years that we do not blame women, what we need to do in ‘Pensions Action Week’ is to uncover and discuss and debate the real reasons as to why women in Ireland have low pension coverage and a high risk of poverty. Women almost exclusively carry the social responsibility for unpaid care work in families. This means that it is significantly harder for women to build up adequate contributions in both private and public systems.”

This week’s National Pensions Action Week involves an intensive advertising and promotional focus on the key age targets of 25 – 39 and will include on-the-street promotional activity, outdoor, ambient and online advertising, national print advertising, regional and national radio and TV advertising. The Pensions Board advice during Pensions Action Week is to stop putting it off and start your pension now. So talk to your employer, bank, insurance company, building society, or financial advisor about pensions today and check out the online Pension calculator or the SSIA calculators on www.pensionsboard.ie .

– ENDS –

Media Queries:

Mary Hutch
Head of Information and Training
The Pensions Board
Tel: (01) 6131900

David Malone
Project Manager- National Pensions Action Campaign
The Pensions Board
Tel: (01) 6131900

Jackie Gallagher / Mark Leech Q4 PR Tel: (01) 4751444
087-237 1838
087-9053679

Notes:

About The Pensions Board
The Pensions Board is the statutory body set up to regulate occupational pension schemes and PRSAs and to advise the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, and through him, the Government, on overall pension policy development.

The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI)
The National Women’s Council of Ireland (NWCI) are the national representative organisation for women and women’s groups in Ireland. There are currently 167 women’s organisations and groups from all parts of Ireland affiliated to the Council. The NWCI represents over 300,000 women through its combined affiliate membership. National Women’s Council of Ireland, 9 Marlborough Court, Marlborough Street, Dublin 1 Tel: +353 1 8787248 E-mail: info@nwci.ie Web: www.nwci.ie

Pension Information
The information unit at The Pensions Board provides a wide range of pension information booklets free of charge and can be reached at the LoCall number 1890-65-65-65 and on www.pensionsboard.ie.