Why there’s an ethnic pension gap in the UK – and how the government could close it

Opting out of workplace pension schemes is more common among some minority communities than the white British population. Pranithan Chorruangsak/Shutterstock

There’s an ethnic pension gap in the UK that leaves people from particular minority ethnic communities worse off in retirement than their white British counterparts. The gap can be measured in several ways – for example, by comparing the pension amount between ethnic communities or measuring the proportion of working-age people from different ethnic groups who are signed up to a workplace pension scheme.

But whichever indicator you use, the evidence shows that people from minority ethnic communities, whether they were born in the UK or not, fare worse than white British people.