State Retirement Pensions: Females

Department for Work and Pensions written question – answered at on 24 April 2017.

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Photo of Alex Cunningham Alex Cunningham Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions) (Pensions)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of women born in the 1950s affected by the change in the state pension age who have access to an occupational or private pension.

Photo of Alex Cunningham Alex Cunningham Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions) (Pensions)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of women born in the 1950s affected by the change in state pension age who (a) have remained in employment, (b) are registered for and in receipt of jobseeker's allowance and (c) have retired early.

Photo of Richard Harrington Richard Harrington The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

All women born in the 1950s from 6 April 1950 onwards are affected by changes to State Pension age under the Pensions Acts of 1995 and 2011. The estimated number of women in Great Britain born in the 1950s affected by the changes to State Pension age is 3.48 million.

The latest figures on pension wealth, from the Wealth and Assets Survey, show that, in the period July 2012 to June 2014, 66 per cent of women aged 55-64 in Great Britain had pensions wealth. This would include those still paying into an occupational or personal pension and those accessing their pensions.

Further information on private pension wealth can be found in chapter 6 of the Wealth and Assets Survey, at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/compendium/wealthingreatbritainwave4/2012to2014/chapter6privatepensionwealthwealthingreatbritain2012to2014

The latest figures from the Annual Population Survey, from July 2015 to June 2016, show that, of the 3.73 million women in the United Kingdom aged 56 to 65 inclusive at that time (the closest age grouping matching the women in question from the data available), 1,919,000 (51%) were in employment, 55,000 (1%) were unemployed, 955,000 (26%) were retired, and the remaining 806,000 (22%) were economically inactive for other reasons.

The latest figures on Jobseeker’s Allowance are for March 2017, when there were around 34,000 women in Great Britain aged 55 and over in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance. These data can be found at: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk.

A small additional number of women in this age group will instead have been in receipt of Universal Credit, which replaces Jobseeker’s Allowance and five other benefits and tax credits.

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