Women save £1,820 less than men each year, The Exeter finds
The Exeter’s Consumer Health and Finance Tracker found women save an average of £1,820 less than men each year, leaving them with a smaller financial buffer if income stops.
Women are saving an average of £1,820 less than men each year, according to data from The Exeter’s Consumer Health and Finance Tracker.
The Exeter said the savings gap could have far-reaching consequences when finances come under strain, leaving women with a smaller buffer to absorb income shocks.
The research found nearly 1 in 4 women, at 24%, save nothing each month, compared with 17% of men. Even among those who are saving, the amounts being set aside remain modest.
More than half of women, at 59%, are saving less than £200 a month, compared with 45% of men. The Exeter said this was unlikely to provide a meaningful cushion against unexpected financial shocks, particularly in the context of rising living costs.
The impact becomes more acute when income is disrupted. When out of work for more than 4 weeks, 30% of men drew on savings as their main source of income, compared with 16% of women.
The Exeter said the gap could partly reflect wider working patterns, with women more likely to take career breaks or move into part-time roles due to caregiving responsibilities, limiting opportunities to build savings consistently over time.
With fewer savings to fall back on, women were nearly twice as likely to turn to loans and credit cards to subsidise income, at 12% compared with 7% of men.
Despite the savings gap, men and women reported broadly similar levels of financial confidence. The research found 39% of women felt less financially secure than 6 months ago, compared with 34% of men.
A slightly higher proportion of men said they felt more secure than women, at 25% compared with 20%. The Exeter said both groups were navigating rising living costs and economic uncertainty, which may explain why confidence levels were relatively closely aligned despite the difference in savings.
Shelley Walker, head of marketing at The Exeter, said: “The savings gap between men and women is well documented, but what this data shows is the compounding effect of that gap over time.
“Women are more likely to have their careers interrupted and to be saving less when that happens, whilst being less likely to have a buffer to fall back on when income stops.
“Saving £1.8k less each year may not feel like a significant amount, but across a working lifetime it adds up, creating a fundamentally different financial position. With a smaller cushion to fall back on, unexpected setbacks can have a far greater impact.
“Yet awareness of income protection remains low. That presents a clear opportunity for advisers to help close the financial security gap across genders, ensuring more women have cover in place to navigate life’s uncertainties without derailing their long-term financial goals.”
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