Women more dependent on pension credit than men
15th February 2022 11:24
by Rebecca O'Connor from interactive investor
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Our head of pensions and savings comments on official state pension statistics.
The latest quarterly government pension statistics published this morning reveal the average amounts people receive from the State Pension and Pension Credit.
- The number of people receiving the State Pension rose by 88,000 (0.7%) to 12.5 million
- 2.2 million people are receiving the New State Pension, an increase of 620,000 on a year earlier.
- The average weekly payment for people receiving the State Pension was £159.11, an increase of £4.37 since August 2020.
- The average payment to men on the New State Pension is £170.50 and £164.74 for women; on the Basic State Pension (pre-2016), men receive an average of £172.64 compared to £145.87 for women. The DWP said that the “introduction of nSP has evened out some of the gap between the average weekly payments for men and women, as women tend to get more under the new rules than under the Pre-2016 rules. However, due to earlier timetabled increases in women’s State Pension Age fewer women have joined the nSP than men.”
- The New State Pension average weekly payment was £168.40.
- 1.4 million people receiving Pension Credit (PC), 72,000 fewer compared with a year earlier, representing a total of 1.6 million beneficiaries including partners. Two thirds of those are women.
State Pension type | Male | Female |
New State Pension | £170.50 | £164.74 |
Pre-2016 State Pension | £172.64 | £145.87 |
Becky O’Connor, Head of Pensions and Savings, interactive investor, said: “Changes to the state pension in 2016 levelled the playing field for women in terms of how much they typically receive. But they still get below average amounts on both the New and Basic State Pension. Meanwhile, the greater proportion of women in receipt of Pension Credit points to the overall greater dependence on state support among older women.
“The gender pension gap in the workplace is caused by women earning less and being more likely to take time out of work for childcare and other care demands. The consequence of this is more women being dependent on the state later in life. However, they usually get less here, too, because they have often taken more time out of work.
“Policies that help to redress the gender pension gap in the workplace should mean that fewer women have to rely on benefits to support them in old age.”
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