Women's Risk in Life by the Chartered Insurance Institute Part 3

Women will experience longer life expectancy, longer periods of ill-health in later life, and a greater need for care, resulting in higher and more unpredictable costs of care than men. However, many women are not preparing for the costs of care

·   A girl born in 2014 can expect to live to 83.2, nearly four years longer than a boy born on the same day.

·   Women can expect to face 19 years of ill-health typically – from age 64 until age 83 – three years more than a man. On average women will need help to carry out basic tasks for nearly 3 years, compared with 1.5 years for a man.

·   At age 65, women can expect to pay £70,000 on care throughout old age, compared with just £37,000 for a man. A woman entering a care home between the age of 65 and 74 can expect to stay for four years, at an average cost of £132,000. Costs in some areas are far higher, with an average of £186,000 in the South East. These figures are the average, and some may face longer stays and far higher costs.

·   Over half of women in their 30s have not thought about how they will pay for care costs.

Women are marginally more risk-averse than men – but evidence is mixed and the impact of other factors such as education and income level seems to be more significant

• Women are slightly more risk-averse and slightly more ‘present-biased’, but this is largely explained by income and motherhood.
• Women are more likely to report that they lack knowledge relating to financial decisions and to want information and advice.

Women, as a result of lower incomes and greater insecurity at work, are less likely to be saving for a pension than men and there is a very large gap by retirement

·   During the years in which women have young children, they have fewer savings than men, reducing their resilience to economic shocks. Men in their late 30s have 60% more in savings than women the same age.

·   Men are more likely to have a private or occupational pension, and they save much more. Women are more likely to have a Defined Benefit (DB) scheme than men, due to a greater likelihood of working in public sector, but access to DB schemes is falling. The average man retires with a pension pot five times higher than the pot an average woman retires with.

Women’s lower savings and pensions wealth means they are more likely to be dependent on others and to be less financially resilient when relationships break down

·   80% of women under 30 agree they are not saving enough for their retirement, compared with 75% of men.

·   Most women in the bottom 40% of households with a household income have no pension wealth at all.

·   Women are more likely to say they will be reliant on the state pension as their main source of income in retirement (36% compared with 30%) – women who are divorced, separated or widowed are particularly likely to be reliant on the state pension.

·   The average divorced woman has less than a third of the pension wealth of the average divorced man – £9,000 compared with £30,000.

·   Most separated woman have no pension wealth at all.

Women's Risk in Life by the Chartered Insurance Institute Part 2

Women are more likely than men to be in insecure and temporary work and are more likely to feel financially insecure

·  Women are more likely to be on zero-hours contracts (3.4% compared with 2.4%) and temporary contracts (6.6% compared with 5.8%), and they are more than three times as likely to be working part-time than men (42% compared with 13%).

·  Women, and particularly those with children, are more likely to feel financially insecure. 1 in 2 women with three or more children say that their money would not last a month if they lost their primary income, compared with just 1 in 4 women without children.

Women are more likely than men to provide unpaid care which limits their ability to work, thereby contributing to lower incomes and savings and consequently lack of resilience to financial shock

·  Nearly a third of women in their late 50s are caring for an adult.

·  1 in 10 women belongs to the ‘sandwich generation’ and are providing care for both an adult and for dependent children. Those in their early 40s are most likely to be doing so, with 1 in 7 women of this age caring for children and older relatives.

Women face distinct health risks and are more likely to suffer from mental health problems

·   Women face distinct health risks, particularly around childbirth and menopause.

·   Women are less likely to meet the recommended levels of exercise, and 1 in 4 is obese, but they are less likely to smoke and to drink alcohol than men.

·   The menopause, which tends to affect women between the ages of 45 and 55, is associated with an increased risk of health problems including osteoporosis and heart disease.

·   Women are more likely to take time off sick from work, taking on average seven days off per year compared with four for men, but they are less likely to be on long-term sickness-related benefits.

·   Women, particularly those who are divorced or separated, report higher rates of mental health problems compared with men. 65% of divorced women have experienced a mental health condition, compared to 49% of divorced men and 51% of women as a whole. Mental health conditions can be a significant barrier to work, particularly for older women.

·   1 in 10 women suffers from post-natal depression in the year after giving birth.

Women's Risk in LIfe by the Chartered Insurance Institute Part 1

I read an interesting report the other day by the Chartered Insurance Institute. The report summarizes the current research on risks women have in life and how this affects their pension. The report called Women’s Risks in Life: An interim report into risk, exposure and resilience to risk in Britain today. It is summarized over the next few posts. For the full pdf report go here 

The report does not paint a positive picture but it does talk about how the insurance profession may improve its response to women’s needs. This involves understanding the current status of the profession’s relationships with women as customers and drawing on the Women’s Risks in Life work (this interim report and the full version to be published during 2017, and additional deep dives) to highlight areas of focus for reviews aimed at improvement and innovation. The problems faced by women in England are faced by women in all parts of the world.

There is still a significant pay gap with women earning far less than men. This has profound effects on women’s life choices, independence, resilience to shocks, and preparedness for later life

·       Women, and particularly those with children, are more likely to feel financially insecure. 1 in 2 women with three or more children say that their money would not last a month if they lost their primary income, compared with just 1 in 4 women without children.

·       Women are now outperforming men in education, being 9 percentage points more likely to go to university and those that do are 4 percentage points more likely to get a good degree. Women and men aged 22–29 now earn the same. However, a significant gender pay gap opens up later on; women working full time in their 40s earn 12% less than men. This is related to a motherhood pay penalty, whereby women who have children before the age of 33 earn significantly less than both men and women without children.

·       On average women in full-time work earn over 9% less than men, down from 17% in 1997.

·       Women are more likely to be low paid than men – they are nearly twice as likely to be earning below the statutory minimum wage (1.7% compared with 1.0%), and far more likely to be

Caregivers, Dementia and the Net

Dementia is a growing problem and the numbers are increasing. Conservative estimates put the number of people with dementia at 36 million worldwide. The majority of people suffering from dementia live at home and are cared for by their spouse or another family member. The stress and challenges of caring for a loved one with dementia often result in physical and emotional problems for the caregiver, which is one of the topics that COSCO Health and Wellness Institute delivers in our workshops. 

However, Internet-based support that offers information, personalized coaching and connections with other caregivers can improve depression, self-confidence and well-being for caregivers is a relatively new idea to help caregivers. Combined telephone and internet support seems to be especially effective for improving caregivers’ self-worth and depression.  

Caregivers are the invisible second victims of dementia, and it is important that institutions, society, and the government finally notice and recognize them for the important role they play – often at the expense of their own health and quality of life. These caregivers can devote several years caring for loved ones and coping with situations that are demanding, ever-changing and stressful. As a result, caregivers often suffer from physical and emotional problems

The cost of treating dementia is growing and the government has realized that support services for caregivers, often group sessions or one-on-one meetings and training with care experts, is important to help control costs. The reality is that intuitional care is costly and there is limited availability of institutional care beds. Studies have shown that the group sessions help to improve the mood and quality of life for many caregivers and help prolong the time a person with dementia is able to receive care at home.

While “face-to-face” support programs can be beneficial, they may not be available in all communities or to everyone who needs them. Also, caregivers may be unable or unwilling to leave their loved ones alone to attend the sessions. For these reasons, telephone and internet-delivered support may be a cost-effective alternative that more people will be able to benefit.

A high-quality systematic review by Eoots L, de Vugt M, van Knippenberg called A systematic review of Internet-based supportive interventions for caregivers of patients with dementia. found that in caregivers of people with dementia, internet support helped to improve some aspects of well-being such as self-confidence and self-efficacy (perception of one’s ability to manage a situation), as well as reduce stress, burden and depression. There didn’t appear to be any notable improvements to caregivers’ quality of life, coping skills or physical health.

Not surprisingly, the most helpful internet-based support programs were those that included more than just information, especially those that included personal connections, such as customized coaching and the chance to interact with other caregivers.

An additional and more recent high quality systematic review by  Jackson D, Roberts G, Wu ML, et al. A systematic review of the effect of telephone, internet or combined support for carers of people living with Alzheimer’s, vascular or mixed dementia in the community. also found that interventions that combined both telephone and internet support were the most effective at reducing depression and increasing self-efficacy in caregivers of people with dementia.

So, while internet and telephone support programs don’t relieve the symptoms of dementia, the right programs may help relieve the feelings of isolation commonly experienced by caregivers and should be supported and used.