By Scottish Widows 

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.

Source Scottish Widows