The pension time bomb hitting millions - and women are paying the highest price

[IwantToRetire]

The report, Being single in retirement - a key issue for the Pensions Commission?, also found that two thirds of single pensioners living in poverty are women.

The overall pensioner poverty rate rose from 15.7% in 2012/13 to 18.6% in 2023/24, based on the consistent figures used by LCP.

While poverty among pensioner couples has remained relatively stable since 2012/13, it has climbed sharply among those living alone.

The fastest rise has been among people who have never married, followed by divorced pensioners.

There were 1.5 million divorced single pensioners in England and Wales in 2024, triple the number recorded in 2002.

There are also now around 800,000 single pensioners who have never married.

Full article https://uk.news.yahoo.com/pension-time-bomb-hitting-millions-230500353.html

I think this is the report https://insights.lcp.com/rs/032-PAO-331/images/Being-single-in-retirement-August-2026.pdf

Oh great I made it to the top of a list, yeah me.😔
It's going to be tough, I am however still going to retire, I've worked 50 years , I'm knackered, I'll just have to tighten my belt and make do and mend.

Look at posts on here and see how few people appreciate how expensive it is to be old. If there are 2 of you there is more chance of being able to do things yourself rather than paying someone to do things for you. Older women may not have been taught to do things that were traditionally seen as "male" tasks. But even if you are/ were capable of doing these things sometimes you need 2 sets of hands.

I like the idea of a higher rate tax payer being able to pay into a pension for their partner and that partner gets the tax relief. I dont want to have to share my pension pot with a husband who already has a good pension of his own, so insisting on pensions being joint life would not suit me.

Going to save a copy of that report and repost every time we get the "all boomers are rich" posts. This is why it was wrong to remove winter fuel allowance from all pensioners.

Regardless of tasks you can and cannot do, I have already discovered since I divorced, just how many things are more expensive if you’re single. Hotel rooms and holidays are often almost as expensive for one as for two (occasionally more). A house for one isn’t necessarily much smaller than one that two can live in, but there’s only one wage coming in. It takes just as much gas and electricity to heat my house as it takes for the couple in the house next door and so on. It’s not easy and I earn a decent enough wage.

This thread is, so far, at odds with the £610 thread alive at the moment. Apparently all pensioners are robbing the young blind.

I hope your are happier after the divorce. The fact you are having to pay basically paying a fee for living a life free of a man is so uurrgh. I hope there are plenty of advantages to single life, because it feels like divorced women are not thought of at all.

I dont know where that thread is but sadly have notice on MN and worse FWR many threads started based on non evidenced statements because it supports the OP's obsessions!

There was a whole thread about this a while ago. Single people being ripped off.

It is the most gross discrimination. One that I notice at the moment is package holidays, or even posh cruises.

A single person pays nearly the same as a 2 people.

From other threads about women pensioners being worse off, and this is from memory there are a number of factors. Some of which are obvious.

Women are more likely not to have have continuous employment, so may not have paid all their "contributions" to getting a pension. And some women, though maybe not that many any more as a diminishing group, are women who paid no contribution and was assumed to become the beneficiary of their husband's contribution.

The oldest pensions will still be on the older lower pension rate. (It always amazes me when news papers post articles about this by angry young people who say they are being robbed that they have no idea of the actual money involved.) And often have to apply for pension credits to meet the level that even the Government says is the minimum to survive on.

Despite screaming headline the UK has one of the lowest state pensions in the western world and the triple lock appears so "generous" because of just how far behind the state pension wans and still is in the UK. I cant remember the details, but I think that whenever it was that the state started saying thatpeople should have a work pension was when they realised that paying decent state pensions would become impossible. Not just juggling who pays what when, but our diminishing birth rate means there are increasingly fewer and fewer people paying contributions.

Even after (no disrespect here) the baby boomer bulge in population has died, this will still be a logistical problem.

Reform or whoever it is saying woman should stay home and have more babies isn't just tired old male idea of the world, but knowing the UK needs a bigger work force. And of course they wouldn't consider allowing those from other countries who could come and work, and pay taxes etc., as a way of getting additional contributions.

Assuming that the single person has a hotel room or cabin with two beds (or a double bed), the fact that they are paying less than the price for two people means they are getting a discount.
It is nonsense to think that a single person should pay half of what a couple pay - when they are basically taking up the same space.
I guess the discount on the two-person price recognises that they are likely to use less water, and if breakfast is included they are having only one breakfast, but the biggest cost to the company is the space.

Given that every pensioner can get pension credit, if any pensioners are in poverty it must mean that this definition of poverty is being calculated without reference to the PC rate.
Which makes a mockery of both the poverty measurement and the PC rate. They need to be brought into line so that the PC rate is the definition of poverty.

I wonder why single women who have never married would make up the largest percentage of those in poverty. Would they not be more likely to work throughout their lives and potentially have paid into pensions? I wonder if there is another defining feature beyond their sex that has contributed to their poverty in retirement. I am genuinely curious.

Years ago I found a way around the corrupt single supplement that travel companies charge. Never use a package holiday unless its the most basic price. Using a package you have no leverage. Visit non tourist destinations travelling independently. Book your first night online and bargain directly with the hotel when you arrive. If they have empty rooms they don't want you picking up your case and marching next door. When I travelled solo I never failed to find a better room at the same price and often with extras like evening meal included. Works in London tool. You have to love haggling but I do.

I'm on the older "lower" pension. I get more than the new pension.

Well presumably that would be based on your contributions over time.

I was obviously referred to the set rate!!!!!!!!!!!

New State Pension
Men born on/after 6 April 1951
Women born on/after 6 April 1953
£241.30£12,547.60

Basic State Pension
Men born before 6 April 1951
Women born before 6 April 1953
£184.90£9,614.80

A bit surprised anyone of a feminist board wouldn't understand why that might be.

Not only because currently, which you must be aware, most women's incomes are lower than men's, and when you take into the time that many women who are on pensions now would have started work at 15 or 16 with few opportunities for well paid jobs.

Have you every investigated this issue for yourself, or looked at the history of women's employment in the UK?

No, I haven’t and that’s why I’m asking. I can understand why divorced women who have taken time out of the workplace to raise kids could be living in poverty and I would have expected that group to be worse off than people who have worked all their lives

Well it is a bit more complicated. I'm just into the group for the new pension but they do a calculation and mine showed that the old pension would give me a higher amount so that's what I get. My aunt in her 90s gets more than me.