§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Social Services further to his reply to the hon. Member for Ipswich (Mr. Weetch), Official Report, 1st December 1977, why the contributions of the self-employed and of contracted-out employees are expected to rise progressively in real terms; and whether a 234W similar progressive rise will affect employees who are not contracted out.
§ Mr. OrmeThe national insurance contributions in respect of contracted-out employees are expected to rise in real terms over the years because the contribution rebates required to provide, through an occupational pension scheme, equivalent benefits to those forgone under the State scheme will decline over the years. In the aggregate the combined contributions to the State and occupational pension schemes in respect of contracted-out employees, like the State scheme contributions in respect of those employees who are not contracted-out, are expected to remain fairly level as shown in Table 3 of the report by the Government Actuary published in December 1977 (Cmnd. 7036). The contribution rates for the self-employed are determined by analogy with the contracted-out, as explained in paragraph 27 of that report.