§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why he proposes that pensions payable under his new scheme for national superannuation should not be related directly to the amount of contributions but will be modified by a formula; and why he has selected the particular formula recommended in the White Paper.
§ Mr. PentlandI would refer the hon. Member to paragraph 31 of the White Paper (Cmnd. 3883).
§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to reduce the number 29W of people requiring supplementary benefits before the implementation of his proposals for national superannuation and social insurance; and what numbers he estimates will have incomes below supplementary benefit level after his scheme has been in operation for two, 10 and 20 years.
§ Mr. PentlandThe supplementary benefits scheme must continue to be widely used to help those whose resources fall short of their requirements while the contributory benefits provided under the Government's proposals are developing to the point where they are normally sufficient to live on without other means. It is not possible to make the estimates asked for in the second part of the Question because they depend, amongst other things, on relativities between supplementary benefit and contributory benefits and patterns of personal income and savings which cannot be forecast so far ahead.
Sir B. RhysWilliamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what he estimates will be the total amount of employers' contributions in the first year of operation of his proposals for national superannuation and social insurance; and by how much he estimates this will exceed the amount to be paid by employers under the existing arrangements.
§ Mr. PentlandIt is impossible to forecast the answer with any precision. It will depend on such unpredictable factors as the extent of contracting out under the new scheme and the changes in the contributions before it starts.
However, on the assumptions used in table 7 of Cmnd. 3883 and making no allowance for contracting out, the total amount of employers' contributions (including those for the Health Service and the Redundancy Fund) would be about £1,400 million in the first year of the new scheme. It is assumed, in Chapter 7 of the White Paper, that the total of employers' contributions would represent an increase in the range £100 million—£150 million a year at the outset.
§ Sir B. Rhys Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will extend any part of the benefit of the two-yearly reviews of pensions proposed in his scheme for national superannuation 30W to the payments which people who have been partially contracted out may draw through the occupational pension arrangements of their last employer.
(2) whether the two-yearly reviews of pensions he proposes to introduce under his scheme for national superannuation will apply in respect of pension entitlements preserved in contracted-out pension schemes of employers other than the beneficiaries' last.
§ Mr. PentlandThese are among the matters which will be discussed with representatives of occupational pension schemes during the consultations on partial contracting out fore-shadowed in Chapter 5 of the White PaperNational Superannuation and Social Insurance (Cmnd. 3883). For the reasons given in paragraph 20 of the White Paper, the Government do not propose that the two-yearly pension reviews should apply to the present graduated pensions or to the equivalent occupational pensions of those contracted out of the graduated part of the present national insurance scheme.