§ Mr. Joelasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the capitalised value of all the old age, widows, and orphans pensions which the State now guarantees or to which it contributes; and whether he can also separately give the capitalised value of the pensions dealt with in legislation now before the House?
§ Lieut.Colonel ColvilleThe capitalised value of the liabilities under the Widows, Orphans and Old Age Contributory Pensions Acts was given as at 31st March, 1934, in the Government Actuary's Decennial Report on the scheme dated 15th April, 1935 (House of Commons Paper No. 82). Pensions up to age 70 are dealt with in paragraphs 48 and 49 and those after age 70 in paragraph 46. Considerable labour would be involved in bringing these figures up to date, but I hope that (with the full explanations of them given in the report) they will be sufficient for my hon. Friend's purpose.
The capitalised value of the liabilities under the proposals now before Parliament are given in paragraph 22 of the Government Actuary's Report on the Financial Provisions of the Bill (Command Paper No. 5415) on two alternative hypotheses as to the number of entrants. The capitalised value of the present and prospective old age pensions under the Old Age Pensions Acts to persons now over 16 is in the region of £1,700,000,000. This figure includes the cost given in the Papers referred to above as the cost of over-70 pensions to persons whose qualification rests or will rest on the contributory schemes.