§ Mr. Craigenasked the Minister for the Civil Service what has been the cost to public funds in each of the past 10 years of superannuation funding and payments for Civil Service pensions.
§ Mr. Charles R. MorrisThe Civil Service superannuation scheme is not funded; the pensions, lump sums, transfer values and other superannuation benefits, including pensions increases, paid to or in respect of the members of the scheme are paid out of Votes. Expenditures, net of contributions paid by civil servants towards the cost of widows', etc., pensions, transfer values received and other 241W miscellaneous receipts, in each of the past 10 years were:
£ million 1967–68 61.3 1968–69 69.6 1969–70 77.3 1970–71 78.8 1971–72 94.7 1972–73 113.6 1973–74 120.4 1974–75 136.2 1975–76 220.0 1976–77 (provisional) 275.6 The 1975–76 figure includes £40 million and the 1976–77 figure includes £30 million in respect of the transfer of pension rights of those civil servants who moved with their work to the Civil Aviation Authority at the beginning of 1975.
These net figures are considerably higher than the true net cost to public funds since they take no account of the offsetting saving which arises from the fact that civil servants contribute towards their pensions by a reduction in pay.