Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T06:06:14.506Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Closing the Gender Gap in Retirement Income: What Difference Will Recent UK Pension Reforms Make?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 August 2007

DEBORA PRICE
DEBORA PRICE*
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The second report of the Pensions Commission sought to establish a framework for a sustainable pension system for future generations of pensioners in the UK. The framework has been largely accepted by government in their recent White Paper, Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System (2006). Legislation will follow. The Commission and the government have made a number of claims about how their proposals will benefit women. Reforms have been welcomed by women's lobby groups. This article presents a gendered analysis of the Pensions Commission proposals using unpublished data generated by Pensim2, a pensions' simulator developed by the Department for Work and Pensions. Substantial improvements for women will be in the long term only, and will depend heavily on the extent to which gendered patterns of work and family life change in future. For women who follow traditional paths of combining part-time work with looking after children and kin, outcomes will depend on partnering arrangements. If they are married or cohabiting, they will be better off; but if they live alone in later life, the principal advantage of the proposals will be a reduction in means testing rather than an improvement in levels of income.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Social Policy , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 561 - 583
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Age Concern 2006, Dignity, Security, Opportunity: A Decent Income for all Current and Future Pensioners, London: Age Concern England.Google Scholar
Agulnik, P. and Le Grand, J. 1998, ‘Tax relief and partnership pensions’, Fiscal Studies, 19: 4, 403–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arber, S. and Ginn, J. 2004, ‘Ageing and gender: diversity and change’, Social Trends, 34, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Bellamy, K. and Rake, K. 2005, Money, Money Money – is it still a rich man's world?, London: The Fawcett Society.Google Scholar
Burgoyne, C. 1990, ‘Money in marriage: how patterns of allocation both reflect and conceal power’, The Sociological Review, 38: 634–65.Google Scholar
DWP 2005, Women and Pensions: The Evidence, London: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
DWP 2006a, Pension Credit Estimates of Take-up in 2004/5, London: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
DWP 2006b, Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, Cm 6841, London: Department for Work and Pensions.Google Scholar
EOC 2005, Response to the Pensions Commission. Pensions: Challenges and Choices, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
EOC 2006, Response to the Department for Work and Pensions: Pensions White Paper – Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, London: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Ermisch, J. and Francesconi, M. 2000, ‘The increasing complexity of family relationships: lifetime experience of lone motherhood and stepfamilies in Great Britain’, European Journal of Population, 16: 3, 235–50.Google Scholar
Evandrou, M. and Glaser, K. 2003, ‘Combining work and family life: the pension penalty of caring’, Ageing and Society, 22: 583–601.Google Scholar
Falkingham, J. and Rake, K. 2001, ‘Modelling the gender impact of British pension reforms’, in Ginn, J., Street, D. and Arber, S. (eds), Women, Work and Pensions: International Issues and Prospects, Buckingham: Open University Press.Google Scholar
Fawcett 2006, Response to the Pensions White Paper: Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, London: The Fawcett Society.Google Scholar
Ginn, J. 2003, Gender, Pensions and the Lifecourse: How Pensions Need to Adapt to Changing Family Forms, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Grimshaw, D. and Rubery, J. 2001, The Gender Pay Gap: A Research Review, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission.Google Scholar
Hancock, R., Stuchbury, R. and Tomassini, C. 2003, ‘Changes in the distribution of marital age differences in England and Wales, 1963 to 1998’, Population Trends, 114: Winter, 19–25.Google Scholar
Harris, J. 2006, ‘The roots of public pensions provision: social insurance and the Beveridge plan’, in Pemberton, H., Thane, P. and Whiteside, N. (eds), Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy, London: The British Academy.Google Scholar
Help the Aged 2006, Consultation Response: Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, London: Help the Aged.Google Scholar
Henz, U. 2004, ‘The effects of informal care on paid work participation in Great Britain: a lifecourse perspective’, Ageing and Society, 24: 6, 851–80.Google Scholar
Henz, U. 2006, ‘Informal caregiving at working age: effects of job characteristics and family configuration’, Journal of Marriage and Family, 68: 2, 411–29.Google Scholar
IFS 2006, An Initial Response to the White Paper, London: Institute of Fiscal Studies.Google Scholar
ONS 2005, Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) – 2005 Results, National Statistics Online [On-line]. Available: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=14203, last up-dated 26 October 2006 accessed on 23 November 2006.Google Scholar
Pahl, J. 1989, Money and Marriage, Basingstoke: Macmillan Education.Google Scholar
Pahl, J. 2001, ‘Couples and their money: theory and practice in personal finances’, in Sykes, R., Bochel, C. and Ellison, N. (eds), Social Policy Review 13: Development and Debates, Bristol: The Policy Press.Google Scholar
Pemberton, H. 2006, ‘Politics and pensions in post-war Britain’, in Pemberton, H., Thane, P. and Whiteside, N. (eds), Britain's Pensions Crisis: History and Policy, London: The British Academy.Google Scholar
Pensions Commission 2004, Pensions: Challenges and Choices. The First Report of the Pensions Commission, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Pensions Commission 2005, A New Pension Settlement for the Twenty-first Century. The Second Report of the Pensions Commission, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Pensions Commission 2006, Implementing an Integrated Package of Pension Reforms. The Final Report of the Pensions Commission, London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
PPI 2006a, Shaping a Stable Pensions Solution: How Pension Experts Would Reform UK Pensions, London: Pensions Policy Institute.Google Scholar
PPI 2006b, The New ‘Contributory’ Test: Principle or Practicality? PPI Briefing Note Number 32, London: Pensions Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Rake, K., Falkingham, J. and Evans, M. 2000, ‘British pension policy in the twenty-first century: a partnership in pensions or a marriage to the means test?’, Social Policy and Administration, 34: 2, 123–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogler, C. 2005, ‘Cohabiting couples: re-thinking money in the household at the beginning of the twenty-first century’, The Sociological Review, 53: 1, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vogler, C. and Pahl, J. 1994, ‘Money, power and inequality within marriage’, The Sociological Review, 42: 2, 263–88.Google Scholar
Warren, T. 2003, ‘A privileged pole? Diversity in women's pay, pensions and wealth in Britain’, Gender, Work and Organization, 10: 5, 605–28.Google Scholar
Woods, L., Makepeace, G., Joshi, H. and Dolton, P. 2003, ‘The world of paid work’, in Ferri, E., Bynner, J. and Wadsworth, M. (eds), Changing Britain, Changing Lives. Three Generations at the Turn of the Century, London: Institute of Education.Google Scholar