March 2026

Non-contributory Pension Programs and Intra-household Inequality

By José L. Casco Non-contributory pension schemes are increasingly prevalent as countries seek to combat poverty, yet their role in shaping inequality remains underexplored. This paper studies how such programs alter intra-household inequality using data from Mexican household income and expenditure surveys. The analysis first examines a local pension program in Mexico City, embedding an age-based quasi-experimental design to identify beneficiaries within a structural model of extended households. Results show that the program shifted resources from men to women and...

Nigeria. PenCom targets one million informal women for pension

The National Pension Commission has officially launched an ambitious drive to enrol one million women into the Personal Pension Plan, marking a significant shift in its strategy to extend financial security to Nigeria’s vast informal sector. The initiative was unveiled by the Director-General of PenCom, Ms Omolola Oloworaran, during an outreach campaign held to commemorate International Women’s Day on Tuesday in Lagos. Speaking to market women and entrepreneurs at Mile 12 Market in Lagos, she highlighted the urgent need to bridge...

How to fix the UK’s 37% pension gap

The UK’s gender pension gap is one of the largest in the developed world. On average, British women retire with pensions around 37% lower than men’s, according to OECD data.1 That gives us the second-largest gender pension gap among the 38 developed economies the organisation looks at. This isn’t just a statistic. It translates into: Less financial independence in later life Greater reliance on partners or the state Higher risk of poverty in retirement More difficult choices about when (or whether)...

EU Gender Equality Progress Slowed by Persistent Pension Gap

According to a report from Euronews, full gender equality across the European Union remains a distant prospect, estimated to be at least five decades away. This outlook persists despite acknowledged advancements in women's representation in leadership and a narrowing pay gap. A primary area of concern is the disparity in pension benefits. Data from 2024 indicates that the average pension for women aged 65 and over in the EU was one quarter lower than that for men. This gap was...

Closing the gender income gap: from paycheck to pension

By Allianz Research Women have made measurable progress over recent decades in narrowing gender pay gaps and increasing labor-force participation – but structural gaps persist. Across the OECD, the unadjusted gender pay gap – the percentage difference between the average earnings of all men and all women without accounting for differences in job type, hours worked, experience or seniority – has declined from 21% in the early 2000s to 13.7% in 2024, and female labor-force participation has risen steadily to 71%, compared with 81% of men. However, single metrics do not capture the full economic impact...

February 2026

EU’s pension gender gap persists as women receive 24.5% less

Women aged 65 or over in the EU received pensions that were 24.5% lower on average than men in 2024. The biggest average pension gaps were recorded in Malta (40.3%), the Netherlands (36.3%) and Austria (35.6), Eurostat informed on Wednesday. The smallest gaps were in Estonia (5.6%), Slovakia (8.4%) and Hungary (9.6%). Alongside averages, the data also compares pensions using the median — the middle value in a range — which is less affected by a small number of very high or...

January 2026

UK. Men end up with four times more in their pension pots than women by 60 – this is why it happens

Men end up with almost four times as much in their pension pots by the age of 60, according to official figures. But the gulf between men and women's pensions boils down to 'entrenched systemic barriers' rather than a lack of financial confidence, a new report claims. Men hold a median total of £75,000 in defined contribution pension pots just ahead of reaching 60, compared to £19,000 for women, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions published last July showed. Its...

UK. Pensions system fails many women, university report finds

A new report from the University of Edinburgh says the UK pensions system and financial advice sector must be redesigned to address a widening gap between men’s and women’s pension wealth. According to the analysis, women approaching age 60 hold 75% less in private pension savings than men of the same age. The report, supported by wealth manager Evelyn Partners, finds that women’s lower accumulations are largely driven by structural and social factors rather than a lack of confidence. Nearly 15 million people...

Pension Saving in a Gendered Lifecourse

By Hayley James Despite automatic enrolment in work pension schemes, private saving for pensions in the UK is relatively low, with most people under-pensioned in later life and reliant on the state pension. In this book, Hayley James shows that equally significant is that women save far less for old age than men. Indeed, her detailed research reveals the ways in which pension saving, as an everyday practice of finance, is shaped by gender and how this evolves over the...

Divorced UK women face 61% pension gap

Female divorcees have been found to typically have £53,160 less in pensions savings than divorced men in the UK, according to research by Now:Pensions and the Pension Policy Institute. Divorced women hold just 39% of the pension wealth of divorced men, with the median pension wealth for divorced men standing at £85,800, compared to £32,640 for divorced women. Among married individuals, men hold 61% more with £111,540, versus £43,656 for women. Divorced women’s annual pension income of £13,893 stands at just...