Social scientists at the University of Southampton, working in collaboration with the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), Age UK Southampton, Southampton City Council, The People’s Pension, Citizens Advice Southampton, and the Pensions Policy Institute, are working with members of ethnic minority communities across the city to help inform the design of inclusive pension policies. Current data used by DWP groups different ethnicities (e.g. Pakistani, Black Caribbean) under broad headings (e.g. ‘Black’ or ‘Asian’) and the UK Government’s pension projection model does not include data on ethnicity, meaning any differences in culture or experience are not accurately taken into account in future pension provision. This can lead to individuals in certain ethnic minority communities becoming invisible to the formal pension system.
Through combining statistics with public engagement research methods, the team at Southampton is helping to fill gaps in existing data and is feeding into the design of future pension policies so that people from all communities can have greater options when planning for their future.
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