Catherine Foot, Director of Phoenix Insights, comments: “The latest DWP data shows there has been a narrowing of the gap between the retirement income of male and female pensioners. In 2023, single male pensioners had an average income after housing costs over £1,450 per year higher than females. In 2024, this fell by half to around £730 per year. While the increase in income among female pensioners is positive to see, there continues to be notable disparities around where this comes from. Female pensioners rely more on benefits, including the state pension, and less on income from an occupational pension.
Closing the gender pensions gap
“Although the gap between men and women’s state pension age and average age of retirement has disappeared, the gender pay and pension gap remains. Pay disparity is a big contributor to lower pension saving among women, but we shouldn’t overlook the key life events that women can go through – such as motherhood, menopause, divorce or caring responsibilities – which all disproportionally impact their ability to save for retirement*.
“Women are entering retirement with around half the average savings of men, so to close this gap we urgently need policies that seek to improve saving across all the different life stages, and encourage employers to go above and beyond the minimum levels of support.”
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