"Women, carers and low earners continue to face structural barriers within the pensions system, whether or not they have children. WBG have repeatedly made these points, including to the Work and Pensions Select Committee earlier this year.
It is encouraging to see this now clearly recognised. The Commission's Interim Report, published today, rightly acknowledges that pension inequality does not begin at retirement but is rooted in wider inequalities across the labour market and care system.
"The report is clear that automatic enrolment has increased participation but has not gone far enough to deliver adequate retirement incomes, particularly for low and middle earners. This is especially important for women, who are more likely to work part time, earn below the automatic enrolment threshold, take time out of paid work for caring, and retire with lower lifetime earnings and savings.
"Women’s lower pension wealth is not accidental but a reflection of structural inequalities in the labour market including lower pay and unequal caring responsibilities which limit access to consistent pension saving across the life course. The report’s finding that women in their late 50s hold almost half the private pension wealth of men underlines the scale of this inequality.
"We know that these circumstances mean that women are much more likely to rely on the State Pension as their primary source of income in retirement. It is therefore essential that the Commission fully considers both the adequacy of the State Pension itself, and how any wider changes to the pensions system may interact with State Pension entitlement and women’s retirement incomes more broadly.
"The Commission’s recognition that carers and those excluded from pension saving need greater protection is an important step forward. The size and impact of the gap in the UK is made worse because of the very design of our pensions system. Closing the gender pensions gap for good will require more than short-term incremental reforms. We encourage the Commission to be bold in their thinking and ideas to address these long-standing challenges."
