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When you work hard for decades you may well expect that you can eventually put your feet up with a pension to support you through older age. But it doesn't always work out that way. Life events can knock you off course and financial decisions that seem innocuous at the time can come back to haunt you. All of a sudden you become one of the millions of pensioners struggling to get by on the meagre state pension of £11,973 – with no other source of income. This falls short of the annual £13,400 cost of a minimum retirement standard for a single person, according to benchmark figures from industry body Pensions UK. That covers £55 a week on groceries and an annual budget of just £200 to maintain a property, plus £450 to spend on clothing and footwear. Someone with this level of retirement could expect to use public transport instead of running a car and take one week-long UK holiday each year, says the report. Falling just £1,000 short of the annual income required would mean needing to cut back on spending wherever possible. For someone surviving on just the state pension and a little savings, the £31,700 a year needed for the middle-of-the road retirement level would feel a long way away. This moderate retirement standard includes £56 a week on shopping, plus an annual budget of £500 to maintain a property and £1,548 for clothing and footwear. These retirees could run a small three-year-old car and enjoy a fortnight's three-star holiday in the Mediterranean, plus a long weekend break in the UK. This unassuming lifestyle reflects the modest dreams of many Britons who have worked hard all their lives and wish to enjoy their pension years. But it can be surprisingly easy for those without decent workplace pensions to be waylaid by life events and suddenly discover that they are retiring with nowhere near enough to enjoy later life in full. Here, three women who say they did everything 'right' share what went wrong that means they're facing financial insecurity in their older age. And they share their advice so that you don't end up in the same position. 'I didn't think to check if my jobs offered pensions' After working for nearly 50 years in secretarial and admin roles, Jill Robertson, 70, from Northamptonshire, didn't expect to be barely scraping by in retirement. She worked for multiple employers over the decades, while juggling life as a busy mum of two. But when she looked for jobs, she considered the income and not whether they offered a pension. 'My mum encouraged me to train as a secretary straight out of school, but at that time pensions were only for people in professions or who worked for the council,' says Jill. 'Nobody said 'find yourself a job with a decent pension'.' Now, she believes that checking the terms of the pension should be one of the first steps when considering a new job. As she approached retirement, Jill made inquiries with the places she had worked over the years to see if she had accrued any pensions. However, she had done so at only one – an airline where she worked in the 1990s for ten years. 'If I had my time again, I would have worked for the airline for longer,' says Jill. 'However, instead I moved jobs to work as a receptionist when I thought I would soon be able to claim my state pension.' Jill had expected to retire at 60, but found herself having to wait until age 65 as the government increased women's state retirement age. In the interim, her one private pension worth just over £10,000 became her financial lifeline. She was forced to cash it in to pay her bills. She now has just the state pension to support her in retirement – around £1,000 a month. Jill is lodging with a friend while she waits for money to come through from selling the family home following a divorce. She has to be careful with her day-to-day spending. 'I don't eat out much, I walk for exercise and use vouchers I get through my bank for free cinema tickets when I want to see a film,' she says. 'With my social life I always have to bear costs in mind and sometimes think twice before doing something. I have to think, you know, how can I afford to do this?' She advises: 'To younger women, I would definitely say, join a pension as soon as you can.' Today, you should be put in to a workplace pension if you work for an employer, thanks to the auto-enrolment scheme that was introduced in 2012. However, there are still ways you can slip through the net. For example, your employer does not need to offer you a pension if you earn under £520 a month. This can catch people out who have multiple jobs as the minimum is per job rather than total income. Worryingly, only one in five self-employed workers making annual profits of more than £10,000 a year is saving into a pension, according to think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies. If you are working and not saving into a pension, it is simple enough to set one up. You will also benefit from tax relief that means all contributions you make into your pension are free of tax. If you have opted out of a workplace pension because you can't afford the minimum required contribution of 5pc of your salary, consider opting back in as soon as you can to benefit from tax relief and contributions from your employer. For more on how to get started, go to thisismoney.co.uk/pension-guides. 'Life events can disrupt your saving plans' Angela Weston Dunne, 71, from Bala in north Wales, worked as a senior teacher and was even offered a job as a headteacher. But her career plans were thrown off course when her mother developed dementia and Angela had to cut back on work to look after her. Even professionals with great careers can have their plans thrown off by life events. There are around 5.4million people in England alone who provide unpaid care for a friend or family member. Taking time out of the workforce to look after children can also knock your pension plans off course. Divorce can deliver a blow to finances later in life, as couples who shared expenses now have to live independently. 'It's women who tend to have to look after the family,' says Angela. 'I've noticed there are a lot of women who may, by my age, be separated from their husbands, or it's nearly always the man who dies first and the woman who lives a lot longer.' Angela expected the drop in income, but she did not factor in what it would do to her pension. She now wishes she had focused more on her pensions when making decisions about what jobs to go for. 'I was offered a job as a headteacher, but I decided to downshift to supply teaching and finally left the profession in 2004,' she says. 'I couldn't take care of my mum, who had dementia, and go for that headship as well. That would have been impossible.' Angela only accrued entitlement for the teachers' pension scheme for five years as some of her subsequent roles were for charities that didn't benefit from the scheme. 'I worked in a few educational charities where the [teacher's] pension does not apply,' she says. 'So it makes a difference where you work with regards to getting an improved pension for later in life.' Angela now manages on a small teacher's pension – she has a total of around £1,500 coming in each month. She says that women often have it harder in retirement. She suggests that workers should save more when they can – in case they can't at other times. But this is easier said than done. Angela is worried about how her two adult daughters will save for their own retirements and says squirrelling away money has got even more difficult for younger people. She says: 'The cost of living is tremendously expensive. I could advise young people to make sure they save a lot. But if you haven't got a lot of money coming in, you can't save a lot – not when you've got so much money going out.' 'I had to juggle part-time jobs and seven children' Janet Smith, 66, from Lowestoft, Suffolk, has joined the army of more than one million older workers who are still clocking on beyond the official retirement age. She started a new job in April, working for two hours every evening cleaning at a local dentist to top up her £900 monthly state pension income. With no other private pension and rent still to pay, she shares her home with her adult daughter to reduce costs. Her rent costs £450 a month and she struggles to afford unexpected bills or little pleasures. A recent trip to the dentist for a check-up left her facing a big bill for dentures – money she didn't have. 'I need a new set of dentures, which is now going to cost me £319,' she says. 'But I had to tell the dentist to stop the treatment because I can't afford them.' Janet has found herself with a low income in retirement because she juggled part-time roles with bringing up her seven children. Money was always tight and her jobs didn't offer a pension. Her husband used to work a day shift at the Bird's Eye chicken factory, while she worked in the evenings. 'I've done everything from caravan cleaning to cleaning offices for the council, shop work, bar work,' she says. Janet faced tragedy when her son was killed in a road traffic accident in 2002. She got divorced in 2005 in her mid-40s and moved into a rented house with four young children still at home. 'I also looked after my parents in their times of need and due to my age [she was then 58] it was harder for me to get a job when my parents passed away,' Janet says. Now on her own in retirement, she believes the state pension isn't enough to live on, especially if you have rent to pay. 'I'm struggling on £900, so I'm now earning an extra £500 a month by doing two hours cleaning each night,' she says. Janet says she has no savings, and if her washing machine went wrong, she'd have to hire one. 'I just wouldn't have the money in the bank to go and splash out £300 or £400 on a washing machine,' she says. She's currently saving up to pay for her dentures, dental cleaning and a much-needed holiday. She says: 'I'd like to say I've had a nice holiday once a year. But I haven't had a holiday now since 2019.' Janet tries to keep her utility bills down by carefully planning the cheapest times to use power. She is on an energy tariff that offers cheaper power at certain times of day. She advises younger people to be prepared to carry on working part-time past retirement age if it doesn't look like their pension savings will cover their living costs. 'I've told my own children, if you haven't got a good pension do not fully retire – maybe cut your hours down to one or two days a week. Because if you haven't got a pension, you will struggle.' Have you got advice to share that you wish you'd known about when you were planning for retirement? Get in touch with us at moneymail@dailymail.co.uk
