Prospect calls on government to take action on civil service gender pension gap

Prospect, jointly with the FDA, has written to Cabinet Office Minister Anna Turley calling for urgent action to tackle the civil service gender pension gap, which stands at 45%, higher than the UK average of 36.5%.

Caring responsibilities are a major factor driving the gap, and we are urging reforms to the Alpha Scheme. Proposed measures include making unpaid parental leave pensionable, easing pension buy-back after unpaid breaks, and mandatory gender pension gap reporting.

As we told the minister in our letter: “The gender pension gap for civil servants is unacceptably high. The scheme managers for LGPS have shown that there are effective and affordable rule changes that can tackle this issue.”

We are calling for a Government Actuary’s Department analysis of the gap and practical proposals to reduce it. Over 3,000 civil servants have already signed a petition supporting these changes.

We stress that tackling the gender pension gap is not just fair, it’s a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010.

You can sign our petition calling on the government to end the gender pension gap for public sector women.