Avoiding the ‘pink pound’ blind spot

While Pride celebrations carried on around the UK, the reality is that ‘pink finances’ remain in dire straits. It was a common trope not that long ago that this cohort of society was more likely to be more affluent than average. But the reality is very different. 

In fact, the challenges facing LGBTQ+ people are vast, and this group is much more likely to have a range of different vulnerabilities. To ensure that they continue to deliver the best outcomes for clients, advisers need to be mindful of not just the range of possible vulnerabilities, but also how to mitigate them.  

Community challenges

The data reveals the scale of the challenge.  

Around a quarter (24%) of young homeless people are LGBTQ+¹, despite making up around 10% of the UK population aged between 16-24 years old². Research from our 2025 Scottish Widows Retirement Report also revealed that LGBTQ+ people in the UK earn around £7k less a year / on average 16% less³, and 23% say they have a low or unreliable income compared to a UK average of 13%⁴. 

We should perhaps not be surprised then that economic insecurity is notably high in this group. Furthermore, confidence is also lower among this community, and LGBTQ+ people are much more likely to cite being intimidated or uncertain how to access potential avenues of support like financial advice. 

There are also more specific challenges when it comes to overcoming biases, life milestones, and support networks. For example, while there’s growing recognition that women are too often placed at a significant financial disadvantage, what this means for female same sex couples is rarely part of that conversation - e.g. double exposure to the wage gap which currently sits at about 14%⁵.

That unfairness places female same-sex couples at a huge disadvantage not just in day to day living, but when trying to build a robust financial future. A sustained gender pay gap is likely to lead to a gender pension gap too. So they are faced with living longer with less money to support them. 

Milestones often taken for granted by straight couples, such as growing a family, are also often trickier and more expensive. The data shows that opposite sex couples are three times as likely to receive NHS funding than single patients and female same sex couples. And while 52% of opposite sex couples get funding for their first IVF treatment, the figure for female same-sex couples is just 16%⁶.  

And while the default for many people in the UK is to lean on family in times of stress and financial vulnerability, as well the growing reliance of inheritance or financial gifting to get on the property ladder, many in the LGBTQ+ community often have less support from their family. In fact, LGBT+ young adults were twice as likely to say they were not close to their immediate family members compared to their non-LGBT+ peers (14% compared to 6%). For trans and non-binary adults, this figure jumped to a fifth (19% and 23% respectively)⁷. 

The retirement and protection gap

All of this inequality typically translates into this cohort being more financially vulnerable as they look toward retirement. More than half (49%) of LGBTQ+ people are on track for a less than minimum lifestyle in retirement⁸ and more than half (52%) say they are not confident in managing their savings for retirement (vs 34%). It is particularly startling that 30% of LGBTQ people are not saving at all for retirement⁹.  

Those in the LGBTQ+ community are saving much less each month, and therefore also have a much lower savings value. This is exacerbated by the fact that this group are twice as likely to be unsure what they should be doing with their money (29%) and also around twice as likely to be unsure about how pensions work (38%)¹⁰.  

While protection can provide a critical financial safety net for those that might be particularly vulnerable to financial shocks, more than a third (37%) of LGBTQ+ people have no insurance compared to a figure of 25% in the UK population more generally¹¹. 

Building adviser confidence

This is a challenge facing the UK government and financial services providers. But advisers have a key role to play in helping tackle this issue as well. 

With around a third (32%) of this cohort admitting to not yet having done any research at all around what their retirement would look like¹², the opportunity for advisers to add value is clear. Part of that is being more proactive in having conversations in this community and bringing in LGBTQ+ people on as clients. It’s notable that around a quarter (24%) of the LGBTQ+ community say that they don’t know how to go about getting financial advice and a quarter also feel intimidated (vs an average among UK adults of 12-13%¹³).  

There’s also a key educational element; not just helping people recognising that they may be in a vulnerable position and how that can be managed and mitigated, but advisers also need to ensure that they are aware of the hidden vulnerabilities that could be impacting their clients and take the necessary steps to have those conversations that could be tricky. 

None of these issues are going to be solved overnight, but pride month is an annual and sadly necessary reminder that we must all do better if lasting progress and imbalance is going to be addressed. 

Sources:

¹Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2024 

²ONS Sexual orientation, UK: 2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/sexuality/bulletins/sexualidentityuk/2023#:~:text=94.6%25%20in%202018.-,Of%20the%20UK%20household%20population%20aged%2016%20years%20and%20over,up%20from%202.2%25%20in%20208  

³Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2024 

⁴Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

⁵Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2024 

⁶HFEA, Family formations in fertility treatment 2022, https://www.hfea.gov.uk/about-us/publications/research-and-data/family-formations-in-fertility-treatment-2022/?utm_source=The%20King%27s%20Fund%20newsletters%20%28main%20account%29&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=14770241_NEWSL_HMP_Library%202024-11-29&dm_i=21A8,8SKSH,7GWY7Z,10KSI1,1#:~:text=IVF%20funding%20was%20least%20common,opposite%2Dsex%20couples%20in%202022   

⁷Just Like Us, ‘New research shows almost half of LGBT+ adults are estranged from family and a third ‘not confident’ their parents will accept them’, April 2023 

⁸National Retirement Forecast - cited in Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

⁹Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

¹⁰Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

¹¹Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2024 

¹²Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

¹³Scottish Widows Retirement Report 2025 

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