January 11, 2022
Māori women face hurdles in retirement
The Staying Safe National Course Coordinator for Age Concern, Hariata Hema (Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Porou), wants financial literacy lessons for all Māori.
Hema says Māori women face far too many hurdles in saving for their retirement and financial literacy is something she didn’t understand until later in life.
She says government policies and social attitudes all play a role in the discrepancies between men and women’s savings for retirement which depend on your career path, how much you earn and how much you can put away.
Barriers can include time out of the paid workforce to bring up children or care for others so there is little money left over once all the bills have been paid.
Less than 30 per cent of Māori now own their own homes, a result of both the housing crisis and the impact of Covid-19.
Hema says more and more people are living in intergenerational homes which is helpful for those who are retiring as well as the younger generation who are finding it difficult to buy a house.