The missing years: caring, career pauses and long-term planning

At a glance

• Women are more likely than men to take a career break (56% vs 38%), but it can come at a financial cost.²
• Career breaks can affect earnings, pension savings and long-term financial security, while also making the return to work more challenging.
• Understanding the potential impact and planning ahead can help women make informed and confident decisions about their financial future.
   

Figures show women are substantially more likely than men to take a career break during their working life.¹ Whether it’s maternity leave, caring for young children, or looking after elderly family members, the responsibilities that lead to time out of paid work are more likely to impact women.

But while career breaks are often a positive experience, they can have long-reaching effects, both financially and on women’s confidence about returning to work.

This is where having a financial plan can help. Instead of treating career breaks as interruptions or gaps with damaging financial impacts, they need to be recognised as a normal part of women’s financial journeys.

Sensible long-term planning can help women more confidently navigate these changes in their working life.

The realities of career breaks

For many women a career break is a positive choice. It may involve new caring responsibilities, such as having children, for example. For others, a career break may be a time to step back and recharge. It might offer the space to consider and plan a different career path.

One in five (21%) women say their career break allowed them to reset and 14% said it gave them peace of mind.³

But not all career breaks feel positive or energising. Redundancy or illness can also give rise to an enforced career gap that wasn’t expected.

Regardless of the reasons, career breaks can bring disruption to long-term finances. In some cases, this can be severe. Our research found a fifth (19%) of women felt less financially secure as a result of a career break.

Multiple and longer breaks as well as early retirement (a route sometimes taken by women to care for elderly family members) tend to have a particularly significant impact on pension savings. Depending on the circumstances, lost pension contributions, including employer contributions, can mean a shortfall in pension 
saving adding up to tens of thousands of pounds, compared to the pension pot of women who didn’t take a career break.

Loss of confidence

In addition to the financial issues, career breaks can also erode confidence for some women.

After time away, some women may feel less confident about applying for more senior roles or taking on additional responsibility. But this could mean forfeiting the chance to grow in their career. Many women may lose out on earning potential in the years after a career break, as well as missing the chance to 
contribute more into a pension.

Our research found that among those returning to paid work after a career break, one in five women (21%) returned part-time as opposed to full-time. This compares to 9% of men who returned part-time after a career break, while 93% returned full-time.⁴

Advice boosts security and confidence

This is why a financial plan can make a difference. If financial gaps and life decisions can be factored into the plan, it can help women feel empowered and address any financial gaps sooner. This can reduce the risk of having inadequate savings in retirement.

When a plan is in place, and with ongoing advice, women can prepare for career breaks. This might mean boosting pensions savings before going on maternity leave, for example. Or getting ready to restart saving and investing as soon as possible after a career break, and at a higher level to compensate for gaps in contributions.

Among women who receive ongoing financial advice, career breaks have less of an impact on feelings of security and resilience. Our research found only one in 10 women (11%) who receive advice say they felt less financially secure after a career break, compared to one in five (20%) of those who do not receive advice.

Women receiving advice are also more likely to say their break allowed them to reset (26%), compared to those not receiving advice (18%), and that it gave them peace of mind (20% versus 13%).

A career break should not be treated as a failure in someone’s financial journey. With a plan that can adapt as life changes, women can better understand the choices available to them and take practical steps to protect their longer-term financial wellbeing.

Sources
^{1, 2, 3, 4} St. James’s Place. Women and Wealth 2026 – June 2026. Opinium surveyed 6,000 UK adults nationwide between 17 March and 9 April 2026. Quotas and post-weighting were applied to the sample to make the dataset representative of the UK adult population. 

SJP Approved 25/09/2026