In 2000, self-employed people, like employees, had to pay National Insurance contributions towards a basic state pension. Unlike employees however, they cannot contribute to SERPS. The second pension choice for them is a personal pension, although many self-employed people make some provision for their retirement through savings and investments.

Among the self-employed who worked full time, as with employees, men were more likely than women to belong to a personal pension scheme.

• 54% of self employed men and 34% of self employed women working full time were currently in a personal pension scheme.

Of the self employed who worked part time:

• 31% of men and 27% of women were currently members of a personal pension scheme (the difference is not statistically significant due to the small sample size)
• just over a half (54%) of men and nearly two-thirds (63%) of women had never belonged to a personal pension scheme.

The likelihood of having personal pension arrangements was also associated with the length of time spent in self-employment. The longer self-employed people had been in self-employment, the more likely they were to belong to a personal pension scheme.

• 69% of men working full time who had been self-employed for five years or more belonged to a personal pension scheme compared with 35% of those who had been working for less than two years. The pattern is similar for full-time self employed women, 49% of those who had been self employed for five years or more had a personal pension scheme compared with about a quarter (24%) of those who had been working less than two years.