§ Mr. Kenneth Clarkeasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will now make a statement on the results of his Department's studies on the extension of earnings-related national insurance benefits to the self-employed.
§ Mr. EnnalsAn inter-departmental working group has completed its studies of the feasibility of a fully earnings-related system for collecting contributions from the self-employed but has not yet examined the benefit implications of such a system or the possibility of any 853W contracting-out arrangements. The group's conclusion is that a system of collecting earnings-related contributions from the self-employed would require at least 1,500 extra Civil Service posts. In view of the need for stringent manpower economy I have reluctantly decided that there can be no present prospect of bringing the self-employed into the scope of the earnings-related pensions scheme set up under the Social Security Pensions Act 1975. In these circumstances further work on this subject has been discontinued.