In a groundbreaking shift, from next year… women will have larger state pensions than men. So what can you do to boost yours?

Women will start to receive a larger state pension than men early next year in a groundbreaking reversal of payouts, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Since the old state pension was introduced in 1948, men have received a larger payout from the Government – adding up to thousands of pounds more over the course of their retirement.

This was largely because men earned higher salaries during their working lives while women were more likely to stay at home and look after children or elderly relatives.

but those advantages no longer hold sway for those retiring today. A new state pension system, which was introduced in 2016 and designed to level the playing field between men and women, has succeeded in closing the gap, ten years on.

Women who started to receive the state pension for the first time this year get just 36p less than men each week on average, according to official figures from the Department for Work and Pensions. That equates to just £18.72 less than men each year.

Among those who retired a year ago – now aged 67 – the gap is around £1 a week.

Meanwhile, men who reached state pension age five years ago, who are now 71, get £322 more each year than women of the same age.

But the gap has narrowed each year since the new state pension was brought in.

Former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb, who designed this new system and is now a partner at pension consultancy LCP, says: ‘For generations, women have been the poor relations when it came to the state pension system. The post-war system was built around an assumption that men were the main breadwinners and women would be financially dependent upon them, not needing a pension in their own right.

‘A key aim of the new state pension was to remove this discrimination and treat men and women equally.’

Sir Steve says it was not possible to remove all gaps overnight while writing the blueprint for the new system, but with every passing year the gap has narrowed. He says: ‘I firmly expect women to overtake men for the first time in the coming months.’

So what exactly has changed?

Pensioners today will receive one of two state pensions.

Anyone who reached state pension age before April 6, 2016, will get the old or ‘basic’ state pension plus (crucially) any earnings-related top-ups. The basic pension pays up to £184 a week, or £9,614 a year. But complicated legacy rules mean that very few people receive those amounts exactly.

More than eight million people, equivalent to almost two-thirds of pensioners, still receive the old state pension, which will be phased out entirely over time.

Anyone could build up entitlement to extra income during their working lives. Many were entitled to an additional earnings-related element of the state pension.

Most people receive this extra pension, known as ‘Serps’ (state earnings-related pension scheme), on top of their basic payment.

Some will receive only a few pounds extra. But others could be receiving as much as the full basic pension of £184 plus a maximum Serps pension of £230 a week. This adds up to about £21,603 a year.

This was typically more valuable to men because they had bigger entitlements after decades of earning more than women and working for longer on average.

Anyone who has reached the state pension age since 2016 will receive the new state pension. This pays a flat rate of £241 a week or £12,547 a year to anyone with 35 years worth of National Insurance contributions.

However, when this new pension was put in place, anyone who had already built up a large top-up under the old system was given ‘transitional protections’.

This meant that if they already had more than the new flat rate built up under the old rules by 2016, they could lock in that higher figure. This was mainly a perk for men, who were far more likely to have built up these extras.

Sir Steve says: ‘With every passing year they become less relevant, because it gets harder and harder to have built up a big Serps pension by 2016 the younger you are, because less of your working life is pre-2016. What this means is that protected payments help men more than women but are becoming less important overall.’

Five years ago more than one in four men who reached state pension age had one of these protections, equivalent to nearly 90,000 men that year. Meanwhile, just 14 per cent of women had this perk – about 46,700 women. This year, one in five men and one in ten women still receive these boosts. As the number continues to drop each year, so will the advantage that men had over women when it came to the state pension.

This will mean that from next year, women are likely to overtake men in receiving larger payouts on average.

Why won’t everyone get the same amount?

People have gaps in their NI record for various reasons, and men appear to be slightly more affected by this than women.

You need 35 years of contributions to receive the full state pension. Any less and you will receive a smaller payout. In the past, many women lost out because they could pay what was known as a ‘reduced stamp’ and opt out of the system altogether. But primarily, it was because they spent time at home raising children, which was either not protected or only partially covered.

Since 2010, anyone who spends a year at home with a child can claim it as a full qualifying year towards a state pension. The same applies to carers on Carers Allowance. So two of the major reasons for women not being in paid work – and therefore not paying NI contributions – are now covered.

Sir Steve says men are arguably at greater risk of having gaps than women and therefore may end up with lower state pensions.

For men, one reason for having gaps in their NI record would be if they are off work sick. In theory, as long as they receive a relevant benefit, they will get credits towards their pension.

But many who don’t feel well enough to work may not pass the test for the benefit – or choose not to claim – so never receive a credit. If this goes on for a while it can damage their NI record.

Millions of older women who are already in receipt of the state pension will not benefit from the change in rules, however.

Women in receipt of the old state pension get £196 a week on average, £29 less than men – a difference of £1,515 a year.

Sir Steve says: ‘Things are changing. Many women lived in a world where it was assumed that they would be financially dependent. It’s the campaigning of women over decades that has gotten us to this point.’

Women are still worse off in retirement

While younger generations of women may soon earn a few pounds more from the state pension than men, they still remain far worse off in retirement.

A damning report by think-tank the Pensions Policy Institute found that women aged between 55 and 59 have around half the pension wealth of men of the same age.

This is mostly down to the way women’s working patterns change over time.

In 2025, the Office for National Statistics reported that women working full time in the UK were paid, on average, 6.9 per cent less than men. John Adams, author of the report, said: ‘The gender pension gap has become a severe inequality within the pensions landscape, with women remaining at significant risk of falling into pensioner poverty.’

Kate Smith, from pensions firm Aegon, says: ‘It’s great news that the gap is closing on the state pension, but if we look at the whole pension provision there’s still a huge gap when it comes to private and workplace pensions.’

Women are more likely to work part-time for a period than men, when it’s unlikely they will make the pension savings they would if they were still full-time.

Smith adds: ‘It’s not just about the amount of time out of work, for example during maternity leave. The biggest gaps appear to be in the ten to 20 years after having children when they come back to work part-time so they can look after the children.

‘More and more women start having children in their 30s, at the time when traditionally their career is progressing the most, but they might find it will plateau as they reduce their hours, which has implications for their lifetime earnings and pension savings.’

A report by investment platform AJ Bell found men and women’s pension savings begin to diverge at 28. Charlene Young, a senior pensions expert at the group, says: ‘At the age of 28, many women will be starting to think about getting married or starting a family.

‘Unfortunately, these competing priorities mean many women choose not to boost pension contributions. It’s a crucial time in their lives as younger women could miss out on the power of investment growth over a longer timeframe.’

Becky O’Connor, head of pensions at PensionBee, says: ‘It’s great to see the state pension equalised but, despite that, there’s still a significant gap in private pensions for women who are right on the cusp of retirement age and have very little time to do anything about it. Women still face so many structural headwinds so this won’t resolve the issue.’

Divorce is another key factor in the gap, she adds, particularly in cases where the women took time off to take on caring responsibilities, in which case their pension pot will be smaller.

Spouses can share pensions upon divorce, but this isn’t always done as women often opt to keep the family home for the children.

• Do you receive a large state pension or have you successfully boosted payouts? Please email: money@mailonsunday.co.uk

How to make sure you qualify for the full payout 

If you’re concerned that you won’t receive the full state pension when you reach pension age, there are several things you can do now to increase your future payout.

First, check to see how much you are on track to receive and when you can start to claim it.

Check your forecast by contacting the Government’s Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0175 if you are below 66. You can also access your forecast online at gov.uk/check-state-pension. It will tell you what you are currently on track to receive and you can also see your National Insurance record.

This last option will show you how many qualifying years you have and any missing or incomplete years.

If anything on your forecast looks wrong, such as if there are missing contributions in years when you were working, looking after your children or caring, you can query it. If you find you do have any gaps in your record and you don’t have enough time left before retirement to earn the required amount, you can boost the amount you receive by making a one-off payment to HM Revenue & Customs.

If the missing NI contributions are in the past six years, you can make voluntary contributions to fill them. The amount this costs will depend on the rate charged in those years. In 2025/26, the charge is £923 for the year.

Kate Smith, head of public affairs at pensions firm Aegon, says this can be very valuable, as the boost you receive will rise each year under the triple lock (by the highest of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5 per cent) and be guaranteed for life.

You can also push back the start date of your state pension and get more money when it begins, she adds. Under the new system, it rises by 1 per cent for every nine weeks you defer – adding up to 5.8 per cent for every year.

You can bolster your workplace pension as well 

About 15million people are not saving adequately for retirement, according to a warning from the Pensions Commission.

However, there are a number of ways you can boost your workplace pension.

Firstly, if there are times when you can afford to ramp up your contributions, or even put a lump sum in your pension, that can help keep you on track. Bear this in mind if you get a redundancy payout or an inheritance.

The rules of pension auto-enrolment state that employees must put a minimum of 5 per cent into their workplace pension and employers 3 per cent. But some employers will match your contributions if you put in more. Ask yours what it offers.

Tax relief will do a lot of the heavy lifting, if you’re in a hurry to boost your savings. If you are a basic-rate taxpayer, a £100 contribution will cost you just £80 because of tax relief. Higher-rate taxpayers pay £60 to make a £100 saving, and additional-rate payers pay £55.

In some workplace schemes, you receive the full tax relief automatically. In others, you will have to claim some back from HMRC if you are a higher or additional-rate taxpayer.

If you have never checked where your workplace pension is invested, the chances are it has been put into a default fund. Check your latest annual pension statement or ask your provider for details of your investments.

Some schemes move you to lower-risk investments as you approach retirement – this is to reduce the chance that your pot suffers a stock market shock before you retire.

However, if you plan to continue working into your 60s, or if you don’t plan to spend most of your pension for many years, the chances are you can afford to take more risk – and hopefully benefit from higher investment returns. Click here for our guide.