Women paid more into their pensions than men in January 2026, with women in their 40s driving the surge, PensionBee analysis has shown.
According to the pension provider, female customers contributed 104% of the amount men contributed, despite accounting for only 42% of total customers.
The milestone follows year-on-year increases in contributions each January. In 2024, women contributed less than half of men’s total, rising to 60% in 2025, with women’s pension contributions now surpassing men’s for the first time since 2018.
PensionBee said women in their 40s drove much of the overall increase. Those aged 40-49 contributed 85% more than men in the same age bracket during January. The surge in pension contributions coincides with HMRC’s self-assessment tax deadline, with data from the Office for National Statistics showing the number of women in self-employment in the last quarter of 2025 reached the highest recorded level since mid-2020.
Maike Currie, VP personal finance at PensionBee, said: “Seeing women out-contribute men for the crucial self-assessment month of January is very encouraging, showing more women in their forties are in self-employment and/or are higher-rate taxpayers and conscious of the importance of making pension contributions.
“This matters as ONS data also shows that earnings peak at about age 44 for women, after which income growth tends to flatten and eventually decline.”
However, PensionBee said the picture was uneven across other age groups, despite improvements on previous years. Women aged 18-29 contributed 7% less than men, while those aged 60-69 contributed 26% less. And despite the positive trend among those in their 40s, the wider gender backdrop remains stark. Data from the Pensions Policy Institute shows that men aged 45-49 have a median pension pot worth £138,816, more than twice that of women at £67,975.
This substantial gender pension gap is largely due to the financial penalties of motherhood and caregiving, the firm said.
Currie commented: “There is clearly growing engagement and a determination from women in their mid-forties in particular to bolster their retirement savings. However, closing the gender pension gap will require systemic reform.
“Women remain overrepresented among the UK’s ‘invisible workers’ – falling outside the net of Auto-Enrolment, which has very much been designed around formal employment structures and the payroll.”
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