The decline of state pensions could hit women harder

The think-tank says unequal pay and the fact many women interrupt their careers to bring up children make it harder for them to accumulate adequate private pensions.

It says the government's current policy of allowing state pensions to decline will leave women at an increased disadvantage in their retirement.

The UK's pension system is "particularly harsh on women" compared with those in other countries according to the Economic and Social Research Council report published on Monday.

The report's author Dr Jay Ginn, co-director of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender at the University of Surrey, said: "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."

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said the government was committed to improving pension rights for women.

And the stakeholder pension had been designed with women's employment patterns in mind.