§ Mr. FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will estimate(a) the proportion of the working age population and (b) the number of people of working age, with (i) an occupational pension and (ii) a personal pension; and if he will give the same estimates for each year from 1992; [71651]
(2) if he will estimate (a) the proportion of the working population and (b) the number of people of working age who have (i) an occupational pension and (ii) a personal pension and who are only paying in levels of contributions equal to or lower than their National Insurance rebates. [71653]
§ Mr. TimmsThe information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out here.
There are about 35 million people of working age in Great Britain. About 10.5 million (30 per cent.) of these people are members of an occupational pension scheme. It is not known how many of these only pay contributions equal to or lower than their National Insurance rebates.
There were about 5.6 million holders of appropriate personal pensions (APPS) at the end of September 1997. Of these about 3 million pay no further contributions into their APP in addition to the National Insurance rebate. However some holders of these plans may also make payments into other personal pension plans.
In total there are about 10 million personal pension plans held at present, although some plan holders will have more than one plan. Information on the amounts paid into these plans is not available.
Information on the numbers of people with occupational and personal pensions are not available for each year since 1992.