The State Pension gender gap has narrowed to less than £5 per week for those claiming the new state pension, new government figures show.

The gender gap for the basic State Pension is much bigger at £25.77 per week.

There are 12.6m State Pension recipients as of February 2023. Of these, 3.2m receive the new state pension, according to the DWP’s latest benefit statistics.

They show that not everyone gets a full state pension with more than 1.75m people getting less than £100 per week. The vast majority of these are women.

“The gap between average weekly amounts for men and women is now less than £5 per week for the new state pension,” said Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown.

“But the gap for those on the basic state pension, remains eye-wateringly high at more than £25 per week, which shows how women retiring under the new system are getting a better deal than they did under the previous one.”

Pension Credit caseload had been on a downward trend since the introduction of the new State Pension but has stabilised, possibly due to government efforts to boost take up, she said.

Ms Morrissey added: “After years of decline the Pension Credit caseload looks to have stabilised. We would expect the caseload to decrease over time as more people retire on the new State Pension, but this is also a hugely underclaimed benefit.

“Any stabilisation could be as a result of government efforts to make people aware that they could be eligible for this most important of benefits.”