Thank you for the depiction of the “great gender pension chasm”, (Women’s private pensions worth 35% less than men’s in Great Britain, 5 June). It is something we’ve long been concerned about and tracked for a number of years, examining how it has persistently shaped women’s retirement prospects for the worse.
The vast inequality between private pension pots for men and women is alarming. The findings of the latest Department for Work and Pensions gender pension report show the need to overhaul the system and promote awareness around the gender pension gap.
With 1.4 million women earning less than £100 a week via the UK state pension, many face continued inequalities in their overall retirement savings prospects in comparison to men. Ethnic minority women are the most likely to face pension poverty in the UK in comparison to other groups, with 54% of Black women not having any retirement savings at all.
Women from Pakistani and Bangladeshi backgrounds also suffer some of the highest rates of unemployment in the UK, with 11% of the former and 12% of the latter out of work, versus 4% of the country as a whole. Once in employment, women from ethnic minority groups are then affected by the gender pay gap – with women in the UK earning almost £10,000 less than men.
Urgent action needs to be taken now to ensure that women’s pensions in the UK – especially women from ethnic minorities – are no longer unfairly impacted by low earnings or a lack of advice during unjust financial challenges. The government should remove the pension eligibility threshold that prejudicially affects women and put in place education programmes that help bridge the gender pension gap.
Pete Glancy
Head of policy, pensions and investments, Scottish Widows
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