By age 45 to 54, ONS figures show men hold an average of £108,100 in pension wealth against £57,900 for women – a gap of roughly 46%, at the exact stage of life when most people are trying to work out whether their pension is actually on track. The gender pay gap is part of the explanation, but it’s not the whole story. Two other mechanics do more damage over a working life than most people realise: what happens to pension contributions during a career break, and what happens when you return to work part-time.
Where it starts: a smaller number, compounded for decades
The ONS’s most recent figures put the UK gender pay gap at 6.9% for full-time employees and 12.8% once part-time work is included, as of April 2025 – both down slightly on the year before, but still meaningful. Because most pension contributions are calculated as a percentage of salary, a smaller salary means a smaller contribution every single payday, and that gap compounds for every year it isn’t corrected. A pay gap that looks modest year to year becomes a much larger pension gap by retirement, simply because pensions are long-term investments and small differences have decades to grow – or not grow – alongside everything else.
The maternity leave rule most people don’t know exists
Here’s one worth checking on your own payslips: during the first 39 weeks of paid maternity, paternity, shared parental or adoption leave, your employer is legally required to keep paying pension contributions based on your normal salary before you went on leave – not on the lower statutory pay you’re actually receiving. Your own contributions, if you’re still making them, are based on your actual pay during this period, so they do reduce. The employer side shouldn’t. It’s a rule that gets missed or miscalculated more often than you’d expect, so if you’ve been on leave recently, it’s worth asking your employer or pension provider to confirm your contributions were calculated correctly.
The trap in returning part-time
Auto-enrolment only automatically applies to employees earning above £10,000 a year – a threshold that’s stayed the same for 2026/27. Return to work on reduced hours after a career break and it’s entirely possible to drop below that figure without realising it, which means your employer no longer has to enrol you or contribute on your behalf. The part worth knowing: if you earn above £6,240 a year, you can still opt in and claim your employer’s matching contribution, even below the automatic threshold – it just doesn’t happen without you asking for it.
Two ways to actively close a gap once it’s opened
If you’ve had a year or several where contributions dropped or stopped, there are two genuinely useful tools for catching up rather than simply accepting the shortfall. A spouse or partner can pay into your pension directly, and even with no earnings of your own, you can still receive tax relief on contributions up to £3,600 a year – paying in £2,880 and having the government top up the rest. And once you’re back to fuller earnings, unused Annual Allowance from the previous three tax years can generally be carried forward, meaning a bonus, inheritance, or simply a stronger year financially can go toward a larger catch-up contribution than the standard £60,000 limit alone would suggest.
Don’t overlook the State Pension side of this
If you’re claiming Child Benefit, you’re also building National Insurance credits toward your State Pension for every year your youngest child is under 12 – even if you’ve opted out of actually receiving the payment because of the High Income Child Benefit Charge. The credit only applies if you register for Child Benefit in the first place, so it’s worth registering even where you’d rather not receive (or would end up repaying) the payment itself, purely to protect the NI credit.
Armed Forces families: a sharper version of the same problem
Military spouses and partners tend to experience this in an especially concentrated form. A 2019 survey by the Army Families Federation and Warwick Institute for Employment Research – still the most cited figure in this space – found that 63% had changed their career path because of service life, even though only 7% actually wanted to, and 87% said they had personal career goals they were struggling to fulfil because of the geographic instability that comes with postings. Every one of the tools above still applies regardless of how disrupted a career has been – spousal contributions and carry-forward don’t require continuous employment to work. It’s also worth knowing that spouses and civil partners who accompanied a partner on an overseas posting from April 1975 onwards can apply for Class 3 National Insurance credits to protect their State Pension for those years, with no deadline to claim.
Let’s build a plan that accounts for the real gaps
We work with a great many women across Poole, Bournemouth and the wider Dorset area, including military spouses and partners, to build pension and investment plans that actively account for career breaks and part-time years rather than assuming a steady, uninterrupted working life. If you’d like a proper look at where you stand and what’s available to close any gaps, get in touch and we’re happy to have a no-obligation conversation.
This article is for general information only and does not constitute financial advice, which should be based on your individual circumstances. The information is aimed at retail clients only. All information is correct at the time of writing (September 2026) and is subject to change in the future.
The value of your pension and investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount invested. Pension and tax rules can change and their effects on you will depend on your individual circumstances.
Armed Forces pension and National Insurance credit rules are set by the Ministry of Defence and HMRC and are subject to change. Current entitlements should be confirmed directly with Veterans UK or HMRC.