By Kate Brown
A recent study conducted by Which? revealed that the state pension gender pay gap is narrowing too slowly. Whilst almost 13 million people in the UK receive the state pension, on average men are still receiving approximately £28 more a week than women despite reforms starting to narrow the gap.
Editor of Which? Money, Harry Rose, commented: “Many pensioners will be shocked by the differences in average payouts to men and women and those qualifying under the old and new systems. Some pay gaps will close eventually, but not soon enough for some”.
The difference in state pension payouts for genders is primarily the result of people still receiving add-ons to the basic state pension that they had built up during their working lives, such as the state second pension which was based on earnings. The new state pension (NSP) was introduced in April 2016 and has been paid to new pensioners since then whereas existing pensioners continued under the old scheme. When the reforms were introduced, the government vowed that nobody would lose any of the pension they had already built up.
Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, who was heavily involved in the reforms, said that it may take another 10 years for the gap to be eliminated and that “the new state pension has been designed to treat men and women equally. Someone with 35 full years in the new system will get exactly the same pension, whether they are male or female”.
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