Part-time but putting something away: Number of women working part-time and saving into a pension triples in 25 years

The only significant rise in workplace pension saving in the past 25 year has come from women in part-time work, according to official data.
The number of women working part-time who are members of workplace pension schemes has risen dramatically over the past 25 years, while fewer men in full-time jobs are saving less and levels among full-time women have remained flat.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics' (ONS) General life Survey shows that 38 per cent of women working part-time were saving into a workplace pension, compared to just 11 per cent in 1987.

On the rise: The number of women working part-time who are pension members has risen over the last 25 years, while full-time pension membership among men has been on the decline.

The ONS says that this could be partly explained by changes that followed a European Court of Justice ruling in 1995 that made it illegal for pension schemes to exclude part-timers.

The type of role fulfilled by part-time female workers also has a large bearing on whether they are more likely to save into a workplace pension.
Just over 65 per cent who work part-time in a managerial or professional setting are pension members, but that number falls to around 25 per cent for those working in manual jobs.

 

Women are more likely to be enrolled in company pension schemes than men, both full-time and part-time, a trend which has continued since 1998. It reverses the situation that existed before that when men were more likely to have workplace pension savings.
The figures also show that in the 25 years since personal pensions were launched, the proportion of self-employed men enrolled in one has fallen dramatically, particularly between 1998 and 2011 when it fell from 64 per cent of workers to 34 per cent.
Only 34 per cent of self-employed men in 2011 have a personal pension, which is a huge fall on the 64 per cent who had one in 1998.
Research by Prudential in November found that around a fifth of people running their own business intend to use funds from its sale to support their retirement income, with a similar number saying they do not intend to stop working.

Membership fall: The number of self-employed men who are personal pension members has fallen dramatically since the late '90s.

It has also been found that a third of people who continue to work beyond the state pension age are self-employed, compared to just 13.5 per cent of the pre-retirement workforce, partly because some business owners fail to sell their firms as they approach retirement.
Pension membership in the workplace fell in 2012, with the ONS reporting last month that just 46 per cent of UK workers were members of occupational pension schemes, the lowest level in 15 years.
The closure of final salary pension schemes at record rates has contributed to this, with alternative defined contribution pensions - such as occupational money purchase schemes, self-invested personal pensions and stakeholder pensions - less attractive to workers as they do not guarantee an income when you retire, leaving you instead at the mercy of annuity or income draw down rates.