§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate total contributions to pensions by(a) employers, (b) self-employed and (c) employees; and if he will express (a) and (c) as a proportion of total earnings by employees.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe total contributions to pensions in 1992 were as follows:
£ billion Pension Schemes Life Assurance Individual premiums for life policies State1 Other (a) by employers 19.5 19.4 — (b) by self employed 1.0 n/a2 31.9 (c) by employees 13.2 9.8 — 1 The National Insurance Fund plus the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS). National Insurance Fund contributions support payment by the fund of benefits other than pensions: there are no figures for contributions relating to pensions alone. However, a breakdown of benefits paid from the fund is given in Table 7.5 of the CSO United Kingdom National Accounts Blue Book, a copy of which is available in the Library. 2 Not applicable. Total earnings in 1992 were £341.0 billion: employers contributions to pensions represented 11.4 per cent. of this.
It is not possible to split life assurance figure between self-employed and employee contributions. Therefore, the employees' contributions proportion has not been estimated.