§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in contracted out money purchase pension schemes are owed outstanding national insurance contribution rebates; how much these rebates are worth in total; and when the Government expect to have paid the outstanding rebates. [160228]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 3 May 2001: There are approximately 2,800 people in contracted out money purchase schemes owed NI rebates for 1999–2000. The rebates are worth approximately £700K. We will pay the rebates when we receive and process a correctly completed end of year return from the employer.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much compensation the Government expect to pay out in the current financial year to people who are owed national insurance contribution rebates. [160226]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 3 May 2001]: The estimated compensation costs for 200–02 cannot yet be quantified.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people with personal pensions are owed outstanding national insurance contribution payments; how much these rebates are worth in total; and when the Government expect to have paid the outstanding rebates [160227]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 3 May 2001]: There are approximately 67,000 people with personal pensions owed NI rebates for 1999–2000. The rebates are worth approximately £29.1 million. We will pay the rebates when we receive and process a correctly completed end of year return from the employer.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have received outstanding national insurance contribution rebates; what is the average length of time people have had to wait to receive outstanding rebates; and what the average compensation paid to people owed outstanding rebates is. [160229]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 3 May 2001]: For the 1999–2000 tax year, it is estimated that approximately 4.5 million people have received a NI rebate. There is no estimate of the average length of time people have had to wait or of the average compensation paid.
§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many married women who previously chose to pay reduced national insurance contributions have opted to pay the full contributions in each year since 1997; and how much last year's information campaign aimed at these women cost. [160232]
§ Dawn Primarolo[holding answer 3 May 2001]: An estimate of the number of women opting to pay full-rate 431W contributions in the years identified, based on a 3 per cent. sample of our records is:
Number 6 April 1997 to 5 April 1998 17,200 6 April 1998 to 5 April 1999 14,700 6 April 1999 to 5 April 2000 4,800 6 April 2000 to 5 April 2001 3,300 The Mailshot and publicity prompted a number of women to request state retirement pension forecasts. We dealt with 35,314 requests between 2 October 2000 and 5 March 2001. As of 5 March 2001, we have issued 20,959 actual forecasts.
The cost of the campaign was approximately £32,000.