§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate (i) the number of(a) employees and (b) self-employed workers who are not making any contribution to private or occupational pensions and (ii) the proportion of this group which is not contributing to (1) state earnings-related pensions or (2) the basic state pension in their own right. [16922]
§ Mr. HealdThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
Information on private pension membership from the 1994 general household survey suggests that approximately 6.6 million employees and 1.6 million self-employed people were not current members of occupational or personal pension schemes. It is not possible to identify how many of these were not contributing to SERPS or to the basic state retirement pension.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate(a) the number of contributors to (i) company or occupational final salary schemes, (ii) company or occupational money purchase schemes, (iii) group personal pensions and (iv) personal pensions in 1992 and currently and (b) in each date and category the median size of annual contributions from both company and individual contributors. [16931]
§ Mr. HealdThe information is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
The 1991 Government Actuary's survey of occupational pension schemes estimated that there were 9.8 million members of defined-benefit occupational schemes, of whom 8.4 million were in contributory schemes; and 0.9 million members of defined-contribution occupational schemes, of whom 0.7 million were in contributory schemes—although 0.2 million of them were in schemes which required them to contribute only the national insurance contracted-out rebate.
The number of contributors to group personal pensions is not known but it is estimated that there may be in the region of half a million members of such schemes at present.
Inland Revenue data indicate that in 1992–93 there were a total of around 10.8 million personal pension arrangements qualifying for income tax relief, including group personal pensions, retirement annuity contracts and free-standing additional voluntary contributions arrangements. It is not possible to say how many individual pension holders this represents, since one person may hold several arrangements, nor how many of 90W the arrangements actually received contributions in the year. The number of such arrangements in 1994–95 was 11.7 million.
Total employee and employer contributions to occupational pension schemes in 1991 were estimated to be £8 billion and £17.6 billion respectively; a division between defined-benefit and defined-contribution schemes is not available. Individual contributions to the personal pension arrangements identified above were estimated to total £4.7 billion in 1992–93; employer contributions were estimated to be £0.7 billion. Estimates for 1994–95 are £5.6 billion for individual contributions and £0.6 billion for employer contributions.
§ Mr. DenhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will calculate the total reduction in future expenditure on the state earnings-related pension scheme at net present value, arising from membership of appropriate personal pensions, assuming the social discount rate used by his Department. [13842]
§ Mr. Heald[holding answer 4 February 1997]For the years 1987–88 to 1994–95, the latest period for which certified figures are available, £7.2 billion at net present value has been saved in future payments of the state earnings-related pension scheme. This figure has been calculated using the GDP deflator and a social discount rate of 3.75 per cent. consistent with the Government Actuary's review of contracting out terms (Cm 3221).