§ 22. Hugh BayleyWhat steps the Government is taking to retain final salary pension schemes for public sector employees. [177334]
§ Malcolm WicksThe Government places great importance on the value of employer pension provision, but not on any specific type of provision, which must be suited to the specific needs of the employee and employer.
Where Government is the employer, it aims to provide a remuneration package that includes access to an occupational pension and employer financing towards the accruing costs of those pensions.
This generally involves providing defined benefit occupational schemes, but defined contribution arrangements may be provided alongside or instead where this is considered to represent value for money.
Where the Government is not the employer—in the wider public sector and indeed the private sector—our programme of informed choice measures seeks to raise 76W awareness of the value of employer pension provision to ensure that employers take into account the recruitment and retention benefits which they can enjoy from providing and contributing to pensions.
§ Hugh BayleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what percentage of(a)public and (b)private sector employees are members of final salary pension schemes; and what the percentages were in 1997. [176987]
§ Malcolm WicksThe information on employment shown in the table has been obtained from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and refers to all people who are aged 16 or over and in employment. Figures have been rounded. The information on pension scheme members (also rounded) has been obtained from the Occupational Pension Schemes Survey (OPSS), Government Actuary's Department.
These are the two most appropriate sources, but unfortunately the GAD survey data is only available for 1995 and 2000 in recent years.
The information on scheme membership refers to Defined Benefit (DB) schemes, which may include salary related schemes that are not necessarily final salary schemes. Data for final salary schemes specifically is not available.
It should be noted that in calculating the percentage of employees who are members of DB pension schemes, two different data sources (LFS and OPSS) have been used. The percentages should, therefore, be treated as estimates only. For instance, one reason for caution is that the OPSS data is a snapshot of information relating to the year as a whole, while the LFS data presented here relates to the winter period (December to February) of each year.
Private sector Public sector All Employment (millions) Winter 1995 19.4 6.2 25.6 Winter 2000 20.9 6.3 27.2 DB scheme members (millions) 1995 5.2 4.1 9.3 2000 4.6 4.5 9.1 Percentage of employed people who are members of DB schemes 1995 27 66 36 1995 27 66 36 2000 22 71 33
§ Mr. Laurence RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the minimum amount awarded through the Pension Credit scheme is; whether small amounts are rolled up until reaching a certain value before being sent out; and if he will make a statement. [177025]
§ Malcolm WicksA pension credit award of less than 10 pence per week is not payable unless payment can be combined with another benefit. Pension credit is 77W normally paid weekly, but an award of less than £1 per week may be paid quarterly unless payment can be combined with another benefit.