The government's current policy of allowing state pensions to decline will increase disadvantage for women, according to research published by the Economic and Social Research Council.

A spokeswoman for the DWP told ePolitix.com: "The government is absolutely committed to improving the pension rights of women. We have introduced the Stakeholder Pension that has a flexibility designed with women's employment patterns in mind and the State Second Pension extends second-tier pension rights for people without earnings, which include some 2.5 million carers, the majority of which are women. Also the introduction of the Pension Credit in October this year will see entitled pensioners gain an extra £400 of which over half will be women.

"As outlined in the recent pensions Green Paper the government recognises the importance of designing a pensions system that is able to help women accumulate the savings they need for their retirement."

Forum Response: Economic and Social Research Council

Dr Jay Ginn, who analysed British survey data for her ESRC research, told ePolitix.com: "Women's typical sequence of paid and unpaid roles over the course of their lives limits their ability to accumulate private pensions. At the same time, the levelling effect of state pensions is being eroded.

"Despite women's increased participation in employment, most cannot rely on private pensions to provide an adequate personal income in later life. Only improved state pensions with protection of caring periods, or alternatively a universal citizen's pension, can ensure that women's unpaid family care work does not lead to poverty and dependency in later life."

Forum Response: Counsel and Care

Martin Green, chief executive of Counsel and Care, told ePolitix.com: "This is another classic case [where] women are disadvantaged by the pensions system and unless it is addressed there will be major problems in the future."

Forum Response: OPAS

Malcolm McLean, chief executive of pensions advisory service OPAS, told ePolitix.com: "There is little doubt that women who give up work to bring up a family are disadvantaged compared to their counterparts who continue to work and have access to an occupational scheme.

"However, the position is not as bad as it used to be. The government brought out stakeholder pensions in 2001 and changed the rules allowing contributions to be made to all types of personal pension plans whether or not the contributor was working (previously only people in work could have made such contributions).

"Another beneficial feature of the stakeholder scheme is that you can start and stop contributions at will, pay in as little as £20 at a time and are exempt from any exit charges should you decide to close down the plan.

"So far as the state scheme is concerned, there is some protection for basic rights for a person who is at home bringing up children. The Home Responsibilities Protection arrangements introduced in 1978 allows such years to be discounted from the total number required (normally 39 for a woman currently) to qualify for a full pension."

Forum Response: Age Concern

Gordon Lishman, director general of Age Concern, said: "This report confirms the findings of Age Concern and the Fawcett Society's research into women and pensions. Women face particular obstacles when building up their pension including lower lifetime pay, broken employment records and less access to occupational pensions.

"Nearly a quarter of single female pensioners currently live in poverty and twice as many women as men rely on means-tested benefits.

"The government has recognised the particular barriers facing women and has agreed to look at proposals put forward by Age Concern and the Fawcett Society. However, unless there are significant changes to the pensions system, many younger women will be no better off than their mother's or grandmother's generation."

Forum Response: Help the Aged

Mervyn Kohler, head of public affairs at Help the Aged, said: "The ESRC report underlines the poor deal which most women get from our male-orientated pension system, which is still based on social models of long-standing nuclear families which are now increasingly unfamiliar.

"Lower wages, careers interrupted by caring (both for children and older people) and greater longevity all militate against women building adequate pensions, and this report also notes the growing disadvantage of divorce. The flat rate state pension redistributes from men to women, whilst earnings related pensions clearly do not.

"The inference is that more effort should go towards a meaningful state pension, which is not on the government agenda, but it is a powerful argument in that direction - especially given the degree of poverty which exists amongst the population of older women."