The number of boys aged 15 or under who have money paid into a pension for them far outstrips the number of girls in the same age bracket, suggesting that the gender pensions gap starts at birth.

The latest HMRC data on child pension contributions, obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by Hargreaves Lansdown, shows that 20,000 boys had money paid into a pension for them in 2016/2017, while the same was true for only 13,000 girls.

Current rules allow children’s guardians to pay up to £2,880 every year into a pension and receive 20 per cent tax relief.

Hargreaves Lansdown has said that contributing just £100 per month until age 18 can boost the pension for a child by £130,000 once they reach retirement.

Hargreaves Lansdown senior analyst, Nathan Long, said: “Parents and grandparents are far more likely to save for boys than for girls, so the gender pension gap can start from birth.

“Whilst women’s paltry pension savings are rightly blamed on the gender pay gap and their greater role in looking after the family, there is another villain in the piece.

"It’s counter intuitive that there are more pensions for boys as women earn less, take more career breaks, and yet have longer retirements, so need more in their pension.”

Long added that it was unclear as to why the discrepancy between the two sexes exists.

One explanation however, could be that child pension contributions are usually made by the baby boomer generation, where men are typically more likely to have the lion’s share of pension in retirement.

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