National Women’s Council of Ireland calls for a universal pension to guarantee a decent standard of

Published: Saturday, May 17, 2008

In a new research report, to be launched on Tuesday (May 20th, 2008) the National Women's Council of Ireland (NWCI) is calling for a universal pension to guarantee a decent standard living for all. The report: 'Pensions: What women want: a model of pensions that guarantees independence' highlights the inequality that exists in the present pensions system in Ireland and calls for a redistribution of government resources towards a universal state pension.

Speaking ahead of the launch, NWCI Head of Policy, Orla O'Connor described the need for a new policy on pensions; 'The Government published the Green Paper on Pensions in October 2007 and called for a widespread debate on the future development of old age pensions. The NWCI has adopted the recommendations of this research as NWCI policy on pensions and we will present these to Government as a contribution to the emerging debate on pensions' she explained.

'The views and perspectives of women in relation to pensions have to date been ignored, the reality of women's lives with significant care responsibilities has never been taken into account in pension policy, and women have continued to be discriminated against in pension policy,' continued Ms O'Connor. 'The purpose of the report is to place women at the centre of the future pensions policy' she said.

The current pension system discriminated against women as current pension policy is closely linked to wages earned from employment. This discriminated against women because:

• women earn less than men (15% gender pay gap)
• women work fewer hours than men
• women will leave employment to a greater extent than men due to caring for children and family members.

The NWCI is also demanding retrospective justice for women of pension age. Currently many women are reaching pension age and find they have no entitlement to pensions because of the years they spent out of the workforce carrying out care work; many of whom were forced to do so by the 'marriage bar'. The NWCI is demanding a full contributory pension for all of those women.

'By placing women at the centre of new pension policy it will lead to a fairer pension system for all. The recommendations that the NWCI makes are not only beneficial for women but could also form part of an anti-poverty strategy, in that they are also beneficial for the many low income groups who experience cumulative labour market disadvantage and a subsequent high risk of poverty in old age' concluded Ms O'Connor.