now:pensions report reveals carers are retiring with significantly less private pension income than the national average.
London, 12th June 2025 — now:pensions, part of the Cardano Group, a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE:MMC), highlights the growing pensions gap for careers during National Carers Week. The 2025
Underpensioned Report, published by now:pensions in partnership with the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI) highlights that carers remain among the most financially disadvantaged groups in the UK when it comes to retirement savings.
The 2025 Underpensioned Report reveals the average pension income for a carer has fallen to 49% of the national average. This is down from 55% in 2020 highlighting a widening savings gap. Carers are retiring with 80% of the UK average private pension income (£6,750 vs £8,500), placing them among the most underpensioned groups in the UK.
Carers are also less likely to be in paid work, with an employment rate of 61% compared to 76% of the general population. They are also more likely to work part-time — particularly female carers, 38% of whom are in part-time roles, compared to just 29% of working women overall.
A call for fairer pensions for carers
To help close the pension savings gap, now:pensions is proposing key policy reforms. These include:
- Introducing a family carer’s top-up, which would ensure pension contributions continue during periods of unpaid care.
- Removing the £10,000 auto enrolment earnings trigger to ensure more carers in part-time work are included in auto enrolment.
- Scrap the lower earnings limit on pension contributions to make every pound earned count towards pension savings.
On average, carers earn £35,248 annually, below the population average of £38,740, but earnings differ significantly by gender. Male carers earn £46,681 on average, while female carers earn £28,176.
While 10.8% of employees across the workforce are ineligible for automatic enrolment (they don’t meet the £10,000 earning trigger), that figure rises to 13% among carers — and 14.6% for women carers. These figures highlight how unpaid caring responsibilities can have a lasting impact on future financial security and as a result, many miss out entirely on saving into a pension through their job.
The problem is even more striking for those in receipt of Carer’s Allowance. According to Labour Force Survey data, just a quarter of carers receiving Carer’s Allowance are eligible for auto-enrolment, with a staggering 75% missing out.
Samantha Gould, Head of PR and Campaigns at now:pensions and author of the report, commented: “Carers provide essential support that many depend on every day, yet they remain systemically disadvantaged in their ability to save for later life. We urgently need pension reform that acknowledges and supports the vital unpaid work that carers do to help provide greater financial security in retirement.”
Helen Walker, Chief Executive of Carers UK, said: “It’s really worrying to see the employment rate of unpaid carers dropping. We know from our work with unpaid carers that they work below their potential, taking less senior roles or lower paid jobs. Working part-time or falling out of work completely can be catastrophic for unpaid carers’ finances in the short term and can leave a lasting negative imprint on their pensions in the future.
“Having a carer friendly employer can make the difference between carers staying in and leaving work. Carers Week is a great time to show employees who are unpaid carers that they matter; share supportive policies, consider moving towards paid Carer’s Leave and other measures to help unpaid carers in the workplace.
“With longer working lives and an ageing population, supporting unpaid carers in the workplace is becoming ever more important and we hope that people will join us in celebrating the theme of Carers Week this year, Caring about Equality.”
The most recent Census in 2021 found that there are 5.8 million unpaid carers in the UK and 1.7 million people in the UK are providing 50 or more hours of care per week. The report reveals that although some progress has been made in employment rates among carers since 2022, they still fall behind the general population when it comes to private pension savings
-ENDS-
All data from PPI analysis of Family Resources Survey 2023/24 and data for auto enrolment eligibility from PPI analysis of Labour Force Survey.
About the Underpensioned Report 2025
The report was produced in partnership with the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), using data from the PPI’s The Underpensioned Index 2024 edition. This is the sixth report published since 2019 looking at pension wealth data of people in the UK.
For more information, please contact:
now:pensions pressoffice@nowpensions.com
Instinctif Partners nowpensions@instinctif.com
About now:pensions
now:pensions is an award-winning UK workplace pension provider that manages the pension savings of millions of members on behalf of tens of thousands of employers from a wide range of industries. now:pensions is part of the Cardano Group. Cardano Group, a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE:MMC), is a market leader in providing risk and investment management services designed to make pension outcomes more stable and robust.
About Mercer
Mercer, a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), is a global leader in helping clients realize their investment objectives, shape the future of work and enhance health and retirement outcomes for their people. Marsh McLennan is a global leader in risk, strategy and people, advising clients in 130 countries across four businesses: Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman. With annual revenue of over $24 billion and more than 90,000 colleagues, Marsh McLennan helps build the confidence to thrive through the power of perspective. For more information, visit mercer.com, or follow on LinkedIn and X.