Pensions system requires urgent change

Steve Bee, Head of Pensions Strategy at Scottish Life, the pensions specialist arm of the Royal London Group, has called on the government to ensure that new pensions legislation, which means two thirds of women will be eligible for the full basic state pension, is extended to fix the problem for all women.

Steve Bee commented: "It seems as if pensions were built by men for men and assume that everyone has a full basic state pension, which does not help women.

"If people are auto-enrolled into private pensions savings, the chances of those being unsuitable seem much higher for women than for men. The new Pensions Bill is saying that the Government has decided that everybody should be saving as the default, but I would prefer if people were automatically enrolled into other forms of long term savings rather than pensions."

"The Government is making a mistake by assuming that women's lives and work patterns are becoming more like men's and that therefore they suit pension products designed for men. The Government must do three important things to help women level the playing field. Firstly, ensure that as many women as possible retire on the full basic state pension; currently only around 35% of women do so. Secondly, women should be able to buy back "missing years" of national insurance contributions. And finally, there must be proper advice structures put in place."