HC Deb 24 May 1999 vol 332 cc52-3W
Mr. John M. Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the ratio of persons working and paying income tax to persons in receipt of state Retirement Pension in (i) 1978–79, (ii) 1988–89 and (iii) 1998–99. [85286]

Mr. Timms

The information is in the table.

Estimates of the ratio of the numbers of persons working and paying tax income to the number of persons in receipt of Retirement Pension
Year Number of taxpayers Recipients of Retirement Pension Ratio
1978–79 25,900 8,600 3:1
1988–89 25,200 9,300 2.7:1
1998–99 26,100 10,000 2.6:1

Notes:

  1. 1. All figures are rounded to the nearest hundred and are in thousands. Estimates for the numbers of taxpayers are from "Inland Revenue Statistics" 1998. Figures for Retirement Pension are for those resident in Great Britain.
  2. 2. The ratios of numbers of taxpayers to recipients of retirement pension are rounded to the nearest 0.1.
  3. 3. For Retirement Pension, the figures for 1978–79 and 1988–89 do not include those who are in receipt of graduated retirement benefit. The numbers of taxpayers counts husbands and wives separately.