Working women losing out with personal pensions

More than half the people who bought personal pensions six years ago have not kept up regular contributions since, and face the risk of high-level charges eating into their investment, the Labour spokesman John Denham said yesterday.

He said that 6 million working women were outside employers' occupational pension schemes, and 2 million had joined personal pension schemes. However, one-third of those women with personal pension schemes, had not made the necessary minimum contribution.

Mr Denham warned: "Peter Lilley's plans to force all women into personal pensions are badly undermined by the experience of women with personal pensions today. Today's working women are dropping out of their personal pensions on a massive scale."