18 May 2023
The Government Actuary's Department (GAD) has analysed the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) gender pension gap. The report provides an initial overview of how pension income and total pension pot size in the LGPS vary by gender, based on data as of 31 March 2020.
The report refers to the differences between the pension benefits built up by men and women. The LGPS Scheme Advisory Board (SAB) asked GAD to help explore the extent of differences in benefit outcomes. The SAB has now published GAD’s update report.
Report details
The findings were that on average, men receive higher pensions than women. This difference is largest for pensions currently in payment, but lower for individuals still accruing benefits particularly benefits accrued since 2014 on a career average basis.
Difference implications
The differences are likely to reflect gaps in:
- pay - Analysis by the LGA in 2019 across local government employers indicated there was a mean gender pay gap of 6.1% and a median gender pay gap of 4.0% among certain local government staff. The GAD pension analysis also includes wider groups of LGPS members and employers, which may have different pay patterns from those considered by the LGA analysis
- working patterns – such as the balance between men and women working part time and taking career breaks
- other factors – such as rates of individuals opting out of LGPS membership.
GAD and the SAB are now doing further work to investigate and understand the pension differences described by the initial GAD report.
The full article can be found here.
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