THEY are paid less than men and face greater poverty in retirement, so it may come as small consolation for women that, for them, at least two things in life are cheaper: life cover and car insurance.

Women live, on average, five or six years longer than men. They therefore represent a lower risk to life insurers, which is reflected in lower premiums. Life cover for women of all ages is about 26 per cent cheaper than for men and does not increase as steeply with age.

Despite these advantages, women, particularly mothers, undervalue themselves for insurance purposes. Many, especially those not in full-time employment, fail to take out life insurance because they do not earn a salary. However, research published by Sainsbury’s Bank shows that women do more than £17,000 worth of unpaid work every year. It is estimated that the cost of “replacing” a full-time mother would be more than £20,000 a year.

Life cover need not be expensive. Moneyfacts, the financial information service, says that monthly premiums for a 35-year-old non-smoking woman start at £7 for £100,000 of cover over 20 years.

It is no secret that insurers generally give women preferential treatment on car insurance because they are not involved in as many road accidents. What is less well known is that many companies that specifically target women sometimes fail to offer better value for women than those that provide the cheapest policies for both sexes.

Sheilas’ Wheels, the heavily promoted female-only spin-off from esure, offers unique features tailored to women. There is £300 of additional handbag and contents cover, for example, and a 24-hour counselling helpline should you encounter trauma on the roads.

Although Sheilas’ Wheels will feature on the best-buy lists for some women, it will not be the cheapest for all. For a 24-year-old who lives in London, drives a Renault and has a clean licence, Privilege, Admiral and Budget all offer more competitive premiums.

David Harrison, chairman of Insurancewide, the online price comparison service, says: “Women-only schemes are not right for all women. The key to getting the best quote is your relevance to a particular insurer in terms of risk profile. You may be a woman, but your driving record and specific circumstances may mean that you do not present the best risk to an insurer.”

But for all kinds of insurance it is important that women are covered independently. Mr Harrison says that married women are especially at risk of being underinsured on their cars. “Married women whose husbands have car insurance may expect to be covered by their husband’s policy when, in fact, they are not,” he says. “If they have more than one car, it may be that the policy covers the wife on only one of the couple’s cars.”

Women rely on their partners for more than car cover, however. As the Pensions Commission report in November pointed out, women face far bleaker retirement prospects than men.

Vivienne Starkey, of the independent financial adviser Equal Partners, believes that this is not just because women face inherent inequalities in the state system. She says: “I think that a lot of women would rather spend the money on other things, such as themselves, their children or whatever. I think that men are more focused on pensions.”

So for women, she says, the first thing is to face it and be realistic. Ask yourself: “How much can I afford to do?” The next step is to find out where you stand as things are. The most secure, if not the most generous, pension comes from the State. Most women would therefore benefit from completing the BR19 form from the Pension Service of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The DWP will work out what your pension would be worth now, based on your national insurance contributions to date, and what it would be when you retire, assuming that you make the minimum qualifying payments.

But even those women who qualify for the full state pension may want more to live on than the current allowance of £82.05 a week. If you have access to a company pension that receives a contribution from your employer, choosing not to join is akin to turning down a pay rise.

If you are not working, or your company does not offer a decent pension, consider a private plan. At present, anyone can invest up to £3,600 a year in a stakeholder pension, a low-cost plan sold by most big insurers. In April anyone will be able to contribute up to £215,000 a year into any type of pension.

Penny O’Nions, of the Onion Group, an independent adviser, says: “Women have to plan to live into their nineties and plan for a reduced welfare state in the future. They should never forget that, even if they take breaks to have children, they are still eligible for a stakeholder pension.”

When women retire, their pension money does not go as far as that of their male peers. This is because women live an average of three years longer than men after they retire, so the annuity provider has to pay out for longer. And remember, at current rates a pension income of £18,000 a year would cost about £300,000.

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