The pension gender gap, just like the gender pay gap, is rooted in structural issues. But if your pension is something that you’re always pushing to the back of your mind and treating it as a task for another day, the headlines might give you pause.

“On the face of it, the tactics needed to build a decent pension fund are to start as early as possible, to put in as much as possible and to maintain contributions for as long as possible,” says Kevin Pratt, pensions expert at Forbes Advisor. “But none of this is easy in a cost of living crisis because the demands of the present tend to trump aspirations for the future.

“If at all possible, women – and men too – should contribute to their workplace pension from the get-go,” he recommends. “Someone in their 20s is putting their money to work for decades, so even modest contributions can bring healthy benefits in the long run.”

“Perhaps most importantly, women need to find out as much as possible about their retirement prospects. Do they have an old pension from years back they need to blow the dust off and perhaps combine with other plans? Can they afford any additional contributions? Are there any gaps to plug in their National Insurance contribution records to ensure they get the maximum state pension? And what other provisions do they have to pay for their retirement?” It might be easy to shrug off as just another piece of admin, but some research now could pay off in the long run.

New research reveals the depressing reality of the gender pension gap