§ 61. Mr. Bryant Godman Irvineasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give consideration to self-employed persons being included in the State basic scheme of pensions in addition to their employees, so that small tradesmen can be afforded this security, by such means as an assessment of their profits on which a percentage contribution could be calculated.
§ Sir K. JosephUnder the proposals in "Strategy for Pensions" the self-employed will continue to qualify for pensions through the State basic scheme, 253W paying flat-rate contributions plus a percentage of any Schedule D profits between £1,000 and the same upper limit as will apply to the earnings of employed persons. It would not be practicable to set up a system of fully earnings-related contributions from the self-employed comparable with that proposed for employed persons and their employers and for this reason the self-employed cannot be included in the State reserve scheme.