Women disconnected by retirement savings

One-quarter of Australian women still feel ‘scared' or ‘sad' when asked how the word ‘retirement' made them feel.

This was one of the key findings to come out of a national survey of 1,500 Australians conducted by Sunsuper on issues relating to superannuation, which showed there was still a substantial disconnect between how Australian women were approaching their financial adequacy at retirement.

According to Sunsuper national head of retail distribution, Anne Fuchs, many women still believe they won't have enough money saved to fund their retirement.

"Fifty-five per cent of the men surveyed said they would have enough money to fund retirement either through their own super, or a mix of their super and the Age Pension, but it was different for women, with more than 60 per cent stating they believed they wouldn't have enough, or had no idea how much they would need," Fuchs said.

Other key findings include:

• When asked how the word ‘retirement' made them feel, 45 per cent of women said they felt ‘freedom' or ‘relief', 31 per cent felt ‘happy' and ‘excited', and 24 per cent felt ‘scared' or ‘sad';
• Eighteen per cent of women think they'll have enough super saved to fund their retirement, compared to 26 per cent of men;
• Twenty-two per cent of women said they would be alright with a combination of their super and the Age Pension, compared to 29 per cent of men; and
• Sixty-eight per cent of respondents did not know whether women received super contributions from their employers while on maternity leave.

Fuchs added that the survey results showed that most respondents didn't know how big the gender imbalance was when it came to super, with only 18 per cent correctly reflecting the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) data that showed the average woman would retire with a balance of around only half that of her male peers.

"When respondents were asked whether women should be paid a higher rate of super to close the gap, the results were equally split between ‘yes' and ‘no' — although almost double the number of men voted ‘no' (63 per cent) in comparison to the number of women (37 per cent)," Fuchs said.

According to Fuchs, the survey results show there continues to be a significant disconnect between the copious amount of information being presented to women about super and what Australians understand about the reality of their financial adequacy at retirement.

"There is a lot of information about women's lack of financial preparedness for retirement, but if the statistics from our survey are anything to go by, these messages are being well and truly lost," she said.

"There appears to be a serious divide between the way the financial services industry insists on framing the discussion around women and super, and what needs to happen in terms of generating meaningful conversations that can make real and practical differences to the lives of women in retirement."