Wise-up on women’s pensions with new guide
21/05/2005
Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation - the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) - has launched a new guide to help working women understand how the UK pension system works, consider the pension options available to them and recommend policies that would make pensions fairer.
The guide, entitled “Wise-up on women’s pensions” has been produced by the NPC’s women’s working party - made up of retired older women from a range of backgrounds, who are concerned that today’s younger generations do not experience the same prospects of poverty in retirement that they have had to face.
It is widely acknowledged that women are amongst the poorest pensioners in society, with one in four qualifying for means-tested benefits. In the main, this has been due to:
Fewer opportunities to work full-time and pay national insurance.
The married woman’s option to pay reduced contributions.
Lower pay when in work, reducing the possibilities of saving.
Employment in occupations that do not offer occupational pension schemes.
Broken work records due to domestic responsibilities; affecting poorer women the most.
Divorce, separation or widowhood.
Helen Grew, spokesperson for the NPC women’s working party said: “The failure of the state pension system has been to base entitlement on a traditional male work pattern of 44 years continuous employment, with little serious acknowledgement or safeguards for protecting the vast majority of women whose working life did not conform to this model.
This new guide aims to help women understand how the system works and give them the arguments to campaign for much needed changes.”
Copies of the guide are available price £1 (inc p&p) from NPC 19-23 Ironmonger Row, London EC1V 3QN.