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UK Pension Reforms: Is Gender Still an Issue?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 October 2012

Jay Ginn  and
Ken MacIntyre
Jay Ginn
Affiliation:
Institute of Gerontology, Kings CollegeLondon E-mail: j.ginn2@gmail.com
Ken MacIntyre
Affiliation:
Unite the Union E-mail: Ken.MacIntyre@unitetheunion.org
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Abstract

The UK Pensions Commission confirmed that women's domestic roles are crucial to their pension disadvantage. As a result, measures enacted in the Pensions Acts of 2007 and 2008 aimed to make state pensions more inclusive for those with periods out of the labour market for family caring, as well as encouraging more saving through private pensions by those with low to moderate earnings. Will these legislative changes, and subsequent reforms and plans, substantially reduce future gender inequality in UK pensions? In this article, we suggest the benefits to women will be patchy and overall less than expected. We first review the interaction of male-oriented pension schemes with the gendered division of caring labour and how this has changed for later cohorts of women. We then analyse, from a gender perspective, the pension reforms and proposals since 2007. Finally, we consider policy alternatives that would give women a better deal in pensions and conclude with an assessment of the mixed effects of pension reforms.

Keywords

Pensionswomenfamily-caringemploymentauto-enrolment
Type
Themed Section on Rethinking Retirement Incomes: Inequality and Policy Change in the UK and Anglo Saxon Countries
Information
Social Policy and Society , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 91 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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