§ Mr. Duncan SmithTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people earning between £9,000 and £18,500 are currently paying into some form of non-state administered pension provision; and if he will estimate the proportion which(a) will remain in this earnings bracket for more than five years and (b) will have an income above £18,500 within five years. [81123]
§ Mr. TimmsInformation is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available is as follows.
386WAnalysis of the 1996 General Household Survey (GHS) and Summer 1998 Labour Force Survey (LFS) suggests that there are around 10.75 million people earning between £9,000 and £20,000. Of these, half are members of an occupational pension scheme, and 2.5 million contribute to a personal pension. Of these 2.5 million,1 million make no additional contributions above the contracted-out rebate. As the GHS and LFS do not track individuals over a number of years, it is not possible to use these surveys to reliably forecast changes in earnings from year to year.
Estimates made by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)1 using data from the British Household Panel Survey suggest that of those employees earning between £9,000 and £18,500 at least once between 1992 and 1995, 38 per cent. had earnings within this range in all 4 years, and 26 per cent. earned above £18,500 at least once during this period.
Note
Partnership in Pensions: An Assessment, IFS commentary 78.