§ Mr. JackTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there have been any recent changes to the Civil Service occupational pension arrangements.
§ Mr. BrookeI am pleased to say that a new Civil Service additional voluntary contribution (AVC) scheme is being introduced with effect from 1 January 1989. The new arrangements will give members of the principal Civil Service pension scheme (PCSPS) who want to make additional voluntary contributions a significantly improved choice about the way in which they can buy increased pension cover, within Inland Revenue limits.
The PCSPS facility for buying added years of reckonable service will continue. But, in addition, members of the PCSPS will have a money purchase option with a choice—between the Equitable Life Assurance Society and the Scottish Widows' Fund and Life Assurance Society, about the financial institution that their contributions are invested with in order to produce additional benefits. Members will have a further choice about the method of investment. Each society will offer with profits and unit-linked investments and each society will provide an option for investment in a building society
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Country Overseas Financial Advisers Overseas Underwriters Water United States Salomon Brothers Not applicable Shearson Lehman Hutton (retained to advise on specific aspects of sale to retail investors in a potential United States offer) Canada Wood Gundy Japan Daiwa Europe Europe Credit Suisse First Boston account (the Woolwich Equitable Building Society in the case of the Equitable; Bristol and West Building Society in the case of Scottish Widows').
The new scheme represents a very positive response, by the Government as employer, to the AVC requirements of the Social Security Act 1986 and to the thrust of that Act and other recent legislation towards improving the choice that individuals have about their pension arrangements and about how their pension contributions are invested. The Civil Service AVC scheme, a copy of which I am placing in the Library, will put the Civil Service pension arrangements in the forefront of AVC provision by occupational pension schemes.