Gender pension gap is wide across UK
The gender pension gap is higher in England than the other nations of the UK, according to an analysis of official figures by the professionals’ union Prospect.
Within English regions, the gap is highest in the South West and lowest in the East Midlands.
The gender pension gap ranged from 25.2% in Northern Ireland to 46.9% in the South West England, the union’s analysis of the Family Resources Survey datasets shows.
The vast majority of nations and regions had a gender pension gap in the range of 36% to 42%.
Sue Ferns, Prospect’s senior deputy general secretary, said: “These figures show that the gender pension gap is a problem in every part of the UK and further demonstrate the need for action to address it.”
The regional gender pension gap figures can all be broken down into a relatively low gender gap in state pension income and a much higher gender gap in private pension income.
Sue Ferns cautioned: “It’s important to draw the right conclusions from this data. A low gender pension gap may simply be a result of relatively low levels of private sector pension income in that region. Clearly low levels of private pension income are nothing to celebrate.
“It’s important to tackle the gender pension gap the right way, by measures that actually boost pension entitlement for women. One of the best ways of doing this is through better recognition of caring responsibilities in the pension system.”