London, 14 July 2026: PensionBee, a leading online retirement savings provider, has submitted formal evidence to the Second Pensions Commission's call for views, warning that disabled people, unpaid carers and those in non-traditional work are facing a growing and overlapping retirement savings crisis that current policy proposals risk failing to address.
PensionBee has urged the Commission to recognise what it describes as an “Invisible Pension Penalty” affecting millions of people whose working lives fall outside the traditional model of continuous full-time employment, and a “Disability Pension Gap”, the most acute expression of that penalty, affecting those whose ability to work and save has been curtailed by long-term health conditions or disability.
The submission draws together three strands of PensionBee research conducted between 2023 and 2026, examining the retirement consequences of disability, unpaid care and non-traditional work.
PensionBee argues that disability, caring responsibilities and non-traditional work are too often treated as separate pension policy challenges despite evidence that they frequently overlap and compound one another throughout working life.
For example, a disabled worker may reduce their hours and fall below Automatic Enrolment thresholds. A family member may leave work to provide care. A self-employed worker who develops a long-term health condition may lose both earnings and access to workplace pension provision. A carer returning to work may do so through self-employment, temporary work or the gig economy.
The submission highlights evidence from PensionBee's Sick, Tired and Never Retired report, showing that 84% of disabled people say disability has negatively affected their ability to save for retirement, while 48% have no pension provision beyond the State Pension. It also points to findings from the provider's Carer's Pension Gap report showing that every year spent out of work providing care can reduce retirement savings by approximately £5,000.
PensionBee's submission builds on its earlier letter to the Commission, which called for: higher default Automatic Enrolment rates, an expanded Automatic Enrolment net to include younger and lower-paid workers, a Self-Assessment route into pension saving for the self-employed, and legislation to make pension transfers faster and more efficient.
In light of its new research examining the Disability Pension Gap, PensionBee is now also calling on the Commission to:
- Remove the £10,000 Automatic Enrolment earnings trigger.
- Extend Automatic Enrolment from the first pound earned.
- Strengthen pension protection during periods spent caring.
- Explore disability pension credits and enhanced government pension contributions to address pension gaps arising from disability-related absence from work.
- Recognise overlapping pension disadvantages within the Commission's final adequacy framework, including the interaction between disability, caring responsibilities and non-traditional work.
Separate research from the Invisible Workers campaign among self-employed workers, freelancers and gig economy workers found affordability remains a major barrier to retirement saving, with 60% of self-employed and freelance non-savers and 57% of gig economy workers saying they can’t afford to contribute to a pension.
PensionBee says these findings point to a broader challenge facing the pensions system as working lives become increasingly varied and less likely to follow traditional employment patterns.
Lisa Picardo, Chief Business Officer UK at PensionBee, said:
“A disabled worker may become a carer. A carer may return to work through self-employment. A self-employed worker may develop a long-term health condition. Yet pension policy still tends to view these as separate groups when, for many people, the disadvantages stack up across decades of working life.
“The Commission's interim report rightly identifies a number of groups at risk of poor retirement outcomes. Our submission argues that the next step is recognising how these risks interact and compound one another. We believe the most effective reforms will be those that address the common barriers underlying pension exclusion rather than treating each group in isolation.
“The pensions system has been hugely successful in expanding participation through Auto-Enrolment, but it was designed around a model of continuous employment that no longer reflects the realities of many people's working lives. The Commission has an opportunity to help ensure retirement saving works for those whose careers include caring responsibilities, disability, self-employment and other forms of non-traditional work.”
PensionBee has submitted its evidence as part of the Commission's ongoing consultation and says it will continue to engage with the review as recommendations are developed.
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