News in brief... closing the pensions gap

⬤ Pension-saving studies consistently highlight how women receive less money than men, but changes to state pensions are helping to close the gap, new data from insurer Canada Life shows. Men and women who retired before April 2016, when the state system was revamped, are currently receiving average state pensions of £172.64 and £145.87 a week respectively. However, for those in the new scheme the figures are £170.50 and £164.74 a week respectively. The data is positive, but there is still “much work to be done”, Andrew Tully, technical director at Canada Life, told the Daily Express.

⬤ More than 80,000 savers whose pensions are now looked after by a government-backed rescue scheme are unfairly losing out because of higher inflation, their representatives warn. The savers are now members of the Pension Protection Fund (PPF), a “lifeboat” scheme that intervenes when a company pension scheme fails. The PPF increases pension benefit payments by up to 2.5% a year, but this does not apply to benefits earned before April 1997, meaning 83,000 savers are getting no inflation protection on at least part of their pension as a result.

⬤ Women who lost out because of errors at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are being awarded thousands of pounds in compensation, new government figures reveal. The DWP has been investigating poor record keeping and mistakes, which it thinks may have resulted in more than 130,000 women receiving too little state pension. Payments to almost 15,000 women compensated so far have averaged £7,399 for married women, rising to £9,506 for widows, the DWP’s data shows.