Enough dieting, give us some meat

Women would like to see less talk about superannuation from the two main political parties and more details about what they will actually do to help women save for their retirement, Women in Super spokeswoman Linda McCulloch says.

"Michael Cullen and Wayne Mapp (National's Justice spokesman on behalf of finance spokesman David Carter) both spoke to a Women in Super breakfast in Auckland today. Unfortunately their speeches were long on rhetoric, but short on details. It looks like the earliest we can expect any action to help women save for their retirement is two years away," McCulloch says.

"It’s time for this endless diet of words to stop. Women need help now if they’re going to enjoy anything other than the basic retirement lifestyle afforded by New Zealand Superannuation.

"Women do have special needs when it comes to saving. They tend to be on lower incomes, are more likely than men to work part time, often have a broken work history having taken time out to care for children and are more likely than men to be living alone when they’re older.

"Labour says it is keen to encourage work-place savings schemes and will remove the tax anomaly that sees low-income earners pay higher taxes on contributions to a savings scheme. Both these ideas will help women. Unfortunately changes to the tax system won’t happen for two years and there are no signs of progress on work-place schemes.

"National laments the lack of a clear framework that sets out the role of the state and the individual in the provision of retirement income, but has yet to announce how it plans to establish such a framework. Getting rid of the tax anomaly that penalises low-income savers is also on National’s agenda, as is introducing tax incentives to encourage long-term savings. But there’s no time frame on these moves.

"Making the sort of changes required to implement an integrated savings policy won’t be easy, but the longer we wait, the harder it gets," McCulloch says.

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