People from ethnic minorities are at higher risk of pensioner poverty, according to a government minister.

Ethnic minorities are over-represented amongst those collecting the poorest pensions in Britain, Pensions Minister Ian McCartney said.

Mr McCartney blamed a combination of racial discrimination in employment and poor access to personal and occupational pensions for the situation.

The government is trying to raise awareness amongst the group of measures taken to tackle pensioner poverty and the proposals made in the recent UK pensions green paper.

Pension plight

Mr McCartney said that many people were suffering because they came to the UK half way through their working lives and as a result missed out on years of personal and occupational pension contributions.

"There are numerous other factors such as race discrimination in employment, language barriers and cultural barriers which continue to force BME pensioners into poverty."

Mr McCartney added that the government had put in measures to ease the plight of the UK's poorest pensioners.

The Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) ensures that no single pensioner should have to live on less than �98.15 and no couple on less than �149.15.

But some pensioners entitled to the MIG have so far failed to claim it.

Green paper call

Mr McCartney called on representatives of black and minority ethnic groups to respond to the details of the pensions green paper announced last December.

The green paper set out how the government plans to close the estimated �27bn retirement savings gap in the UK.

Under the proposals, workers will be given incentives if they choose not to collect their State pension at 65.

In addition, the retirement age of newly-joined public sector workers retirement age is to be raised to 65 from 60 from 2006.