Marvin OnumonuResearch from the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) found many people in underpensioned groups have a lower standard of living in retirement, due to ongoing Labour market inequalities during working life.
PPI’s fifth ‘Underpensioned’ report released today, 30th April, revealed that overall employment rates have dropped.
The report also found that underpensioned groups still have lower employment rates and are more likely to be in part-time work compared to the population average.
People with a disability have an employment rate of 54%, which is 28% lower than people without a disability at 82%.
The research also showed that the gap between women’s average income and the population average was 18%.
It also revealed that levels of homeownership was lower among underpensioned groups, and many are likely to be renting later in life.
There are also inequalities linked directly to pension provision and entitlement.
The research found eligibility for automatic enrolment was the same as the population average when looking at all ethnic minority groups combined, but there are big differences between groups.
It showed that 96% of employees from an Indian background are eligible for automatic enrolment, but only 65% of Bangladeshi employees are.
Additionally, people with a disability are 5% less likely to be eligible for automatic enrolment than the population average, and because employment rates are much lower, overall pension participation is also much lower.
John Adams, senior policy analyst at the PPI, said: “This year’s Underpensioned report builds upon the foundation of previous years, allowing us to start to view ongoing trends as well as monitoring recent levels of access to pension savings for different groups.
“In the current report people with disabilities continue to be some of the people most likely to be under pensioned.
“People from ethnic minority backgrounds have very diverse outcomes, some ethnic minorities are significantly under pensioned compared to the general population, whereas others are much less likely to be employees or have income levels that enable them to be automatically enrolled into pension savings.”
