§ Mr. McLoughlinTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services how long it would take for(a) a married man, (b) a single man and (c) a single woman, all of whom retired on 31 December 1987, all of whom started work at the age of 16 years and all of whom were on the average national wage throughout their working life, to get back by way of retirement pension all the money they had paid in national insurance contributions, assuming that the current basic pension remains constant.
§ Mr. ScottThe information requested is in the table. Line 1 represents the time taken to recover in retirement pension the whole cash value of employee national insurance contributions paid by a man or woman on average manual earnings, if the whole NI contribution allocated to benefit purposes is assumed to be available for the purpose. Line 2 assumes that only the share of NI contributions required to fund retirement pensions is available for the purpose. The figures for a married man include pension paid to his wife on his contribution record.
(years) Line 1 Line 2 (a)1.6 1.2 (b)2.3 1.6 (c)1.7 1.3