§ 5. Mr. SummersonTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what special financial incentives are being provided for people to take out personal pensions.
§ Mr. Peter LloydPeople who take out personal pensions before April 1989 can backdate membership to April 1987. They are also eligible from that date for the special 2 per cent. incentive payment, which is payable until April 1993.
§ Mr. SummersonI thank my hon. Friend for that reply and congratulate him on his first appearance on the Front Bench. How many people have opted to take out personal pensions since the new arrangements were introduced earlier this year?
§ Mr. LloydI am grateful to my hon. Friend. I can tell him that 110 schemes have been set up and that 102,000 individuals have taken out personal pensions. If my hon. Friend would like to look at the Financial Times of 31 October, he will see a report which says that the figure
from a straw poll of life companies, shows … the personal pensions market was extremely buoyant in its first three months.
§ Mrs. MahonDoes the Minister agree that, given the small numbers on state earnings-related pensions receiving more than £15 a week—33,000 men and just over 4,000 733 women—the decision to reduce that entitlement in 1999 should be reversed? Will the hon. Gentleman draw those small numbers receiving just £15 a week to the attention of the Chancellor, who believes that there are large numbers?
§ Mr. LloydIt is an excellent time to make a necessary change when so few numbers will be affected. The problem in the next century will be the burden on the working population. The alternatives which we have introduced will mean that more and more people will have a second pension. They will be properly funded. Those people will not be a burden on the working population. Indeed, they will find additional finance for investment in industry.