Women’s pensions ‘a serious issue’
The number of women still lacking a pension is a “serious issue” that will form a major strand of the pensions debate, the work and pensions secretary said today.
David Blunkett said that while progress had been made improving the position of women in retirement, inequalities remain.
“Since 1997, 1.3 million women in retirement have been lifted out of absolute poverty and around two thirds of the 5.8 million low earners benefiting from the state second pension are women,” Mr Blunkett said.
“However, I readily accept that inequalities in the current system are a serious issue, which is why I believe we need to highlight it in the current national pensions debate and give it the individual focus it deserves.”
The department for work and pensions will soon be hosting an event to look at how the pensions system can be made to work better for women, he said.
