Why UNISON thinks women will be hit particularly hard by changes to public sector pensions
Women make up a larger proportion of the public service workforce, accounting for around 75% of workers in local government and 77% of NHS workers.
In adult social care and schools the figures are even higher: 80% and 82% respectively. Any changes to public service pensions are likely to affect significantly more women than men.
Women also earn less than men – 21% less on average in the public sector – and they tend to be concentrated in the lower paid professions.
As a result of their lower pay and often broken employment records, women already receive very modest pensions, so any changes to pensions contributions will hit them very hard.
The median pension for women who have worked in the NHS is just £3,500 a year (£67 per week): the average for women who have worked in local government is £2,800 (£54 a week).
It is being said that there is protection for the low-paid, so won’t these women be protected?
Only those workers earning less than £15,000 will not see a rise in their pensions contributions. For those working part-time their contributions increase will be based on the salary of a full-time equivalent position, so they may earn less than £15,000 but still end up paying more. The majority of part-time workers are women, so this will affect them in greater numbers too.
How many women will be affected by the pension changes?
These changes will directly affect around 3.7 million women – more than one in four working women in the UK and over one in three working women over 50 – who make up around 64% of the total public sector workforce.
The changes to retirement age will just even things up between men and women, won’t they?
Women will not only be hit by the changes in public service pensions but also the accelerated increase in their state pension age.
The retirement age for women is currently increasing gradually from 60 to 65, and the state pension age to 66 by 2020 for both men and women. This will mean that women face a much sharper retirement age increase than men.
About half a million women in their late 50′s will have to wait up to two years longer to retire than was previously the case.
What’s more, male dominated areas of public employment – the armed forces, police and firefighters – have been exempted from the latest increases in retirement age, while currently protected special classes of health workers, including nureses, midwives health visitors, physiotherapists and mental health officers, face increases of 11-13 years.
Women are also more likely to have childcare responsibilities. Around 1.3million women workig in the public sectore – more than one in three – are working mothers, and over 250,000 of them will be single parents. Many will find it hard to work the hours needed for an adequate pension.
