Women 'more than twice as likely' to miss out on pensions auto-enrolment

05 Jun 2023

Data published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has suggested that women are more than twice as likely to miss out on being automatically enrolled into a workplace pension.

The TUC's analysis showed that 10.9% of women are in jobs where their employers are not required to enter them into a workplace pension, compared to just 4.3% of men.

By law, employers must automatically enrol employees into a workplace pension if they earn £10,000 a year or more. Employers must also make pension contributions for workers.

The TUC found that 1.4 million women earn less than this, 'potentially leaving many without an occupational pension'.

Commenting on the data, Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC, said: 'We need to fix our pension system so that all women can benefit from a decent income in retirement.

'But many are missing out on having any sort of occupational pension at all. Unless ministers act now, more women will be consigned to poverty in retirement. Ministers should start by scrapping the earnings threshold for auto-enrolment. Workers should have the chance to build up a pension, regardless of how much they earn.'