Single mothers' pension pots just 12% of the average man's

The report found that the average pension pot of single mothers is also 30% less than divorced women who have £26,100.

Research from NOW: Pensions also found that single mothers have the highest rate of employment (76%), yet tend to earn the least.

Many single mothers struggle to work full-time hours and therefore may not contribute to a workplace pension, and the survey found that the Covid-19 lockdown has made it even harder for single mothers to work.

The combination of higher levels of part-time work, lower levels of pay and greater demands on their income as the sole earner in their household, means that they are likely to find it difficult to save adequately for retirement.

Of the 13.4 million employed women in the UK, 23% (3 million) do not meet the qualifying criteria for auto enrolment compared to 12% of men. This rises to 31% of single mothers, or 341,000.

If auto enrolment contributions were to start from £1 of earnings, this would increase the number of employed single mothers who are eligible by 9.3% - bringing an additional 300,000 single mothers into workplace pensions.

The study found that even those single mothers who are in full-time work earn on average £18,290 which is nearly a quarter (24%) less than other full-time women workers, who earn £24,150, and 33% less than the average UK population of £27,380.

Joe Richardson, research and policy officer at Gingerbread Charity, commented: “Single parents face near-insurmountable barriers in securing work that pays the bills and allows for a decent standard of living. This new research shows that for many of them chronic low income will persist well into retirement. Single parents are unable to ‘shift parent’ like couples can, meaning they require external childcare support for every hour of work they do.

"With childcare support being the main ‘gaping hole’ in the Chancellor’s Mini-Budget, Covid-19 threatens to lock single parents out of work altogether. With next to no childcare available, single parents will be forced to choose between going into work and leaving young children without supervision or staying at home and losing their job - a sure-fire route into unemployment.

"Urgent support is needed for the UK’s 1.8 million single parent families facing this dilemma. Without this, these families will face a generation of mass unemployment, poverty and debt.”