MUSICIANS and other self-employed women workers are hit hardest by the gender pensions gap and will not have sufficient savings to support themselves in retirement, trade unions warned today.

Delegates at the TUC Women’s Conference said that the largest causal factor of the pensions gap is women being more likely to take time off work to assume caring responsibilities, with union reps noting that, women on average carry out 60 per cent more unpaid work than men.

Hailey Willington of the Musicians Union said that cost-of-living pressures have meant that many musicians are dipping into their paid or private pensions pot to be able to afford heating and food.