Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the recent finding that women's private pensions in Great Britain are worth 35 per cent less than men's by the time they reach age 55; and what steps they intend to take to address that gap.

On 5 June 2023, DWP published an official measure of the gender pensions gap, which is currently 35% between men and women shortly before they retire.

The publication of an official annual measure will help us track the collective efforts of government, industry and employers to close the Gender Pensions Gap.

Automatic Enrolment has brought millions of women into pension saving for the very first time. Median female pension wealth around Normal Minimum Pension Age has increased by 90% in real terms, from 2006/2008 to 2018/2020.

The government remains committed to implementing the 2017 Automatic Enrolment Review measures, which will disproportionately benefit lower earners, including people working in multiple low-paid part time jobs who are predominantly women. That is why we are supporting Jonathan Gullis' Private Members’ Bill, which completed Commons stages on Friday 24 March.

Much of the gender pensions gap is due to the gender pay gap. Over the last decade the gender pay gap has fallen from 19.6% to 14.9% and the percentage of women in employment has gone from 66.5% to 72.3%.

We are introducing a series of measures which will further reduce the gender pay gap and will in turn impact the gender pensions gap.

In the budget we announced the expansion of funded childcare, changes to the childcare element of Universal Credit, and changes to conditionality for lead carers of children aged 1 to 12.

The Department for Business and Trade is supporting Yasmin Qureshi’s Private Members’ Bill, on flexible working, and supported Wendy Chamberlain’s Private Members’ Bill on carers leave, which became the Carers Leave Act (2023) on 24 May 2023.