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19 Feb 2007 : Column 346W—continued
Pension Credit: Scotland
John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make a statement on the take up of pension credit in Scotland. [119170]
James Purnell: Estimates of eligibility, and therefore of take-up, are not available below the level of Great Britain, and it is not therefore possible to say what the take-up of Pension Credit in Scotland is.
The latest estimates of the number of pensioners in Great Britain entitled to pension credit were published in ‘Pension Credit Estimates of Take-Up in 2004-05’. A copy of the report is available in the Library.
Pension credit has been highly successful in reducing pensioner poverty and now, for the first time in a period of sustained economic growth, pensioners are less likely to be in poverty than the population as a whole. Since the introduction of pension credit, the number of pensioners in relative poverty has fallen by half a million.
We continue to make every effort to ensure that pension credit goes to those who are entitled to it. The latest estimates showed that 2.7 million households were receiving pension credit, and this includes 283,480 households in Scotland.
Notes:
1. The figure provided is an early estimate. The preferred data source for figures supplied by DWP is the Work and Pensions Longitudinal Study (WPLS). However, the figure provided is the latest available figure which is taken from the GMS scan at 1 September 2006. These are adjusted using the historical relationship between WPLS and GMS data to give an estimate of the final WPLS figure.
2. Caseloads are rounded to the nearest 10.
3. Household recipients are those people who claim pension credit either for themselves only or on behalf of a household.
Source:
DWP 100 per cent. data from the Generalised Matching Service (GMS) pension credit scan taken as at 1 September 2006.
Pension Financial Assistance Scheme
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) members, (b) pensioner members and (c) non-pensioner members there are in schemes approved for the Financial Assistance Scheme. [116386]
James Purnell: We are not able to collect definitive data on total scheme membership until schemes submit data on individual members on completion of wind-up. However, schemes are asked to provide an indication of the number of scheme members as part of the qualification process. This information, which is unverified and has not been provided by all schemes, suggests that there might be at least 106,000 non-pensioner members in schemes that have qualified to the end of December 2006. This would appear to be in line with our assumption that once all schemes have qualified there will be around 120,000 non pensioners in total who have suffered losses.
For pensioners, the same data suggests that there are 46,000 in schemes that have qualified to the end of December 2006. Of these, we estimate that only around 5,000 might have suffered losses because they are higher up the priority order and their pensions are more highly protected than non-pensioner members.
This information would therefore appear to be in line with our assumption that in total around 125,000 pensioner and non-pensioner members have suffered losses.
Pensioners: Property
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of (a) the proportion of pensioners who will own their own homes in (i) 10, (ii) 20, (iii) 30, (iv) 40 and (v) 50 years' time and (b) the number of pensioners who will not own their own home in retirement in each year. [120549]
Yvette Cooper: I have been asked to reply.
The Department does not have projections of the proportion of pensioners who will own their own homes in the future. It is possible to present historic figures only for the proportion of pensioner households who owned their own homes.
The figures in the table tabulate housing tenure for households with a head of household who is a pensioner for the years 1995-96 to 2005-06 as reported through the Survey of English Housing:
| Pensioner households in England by tenure, 1995-96 to 2005-06 | |||||
| Housing tenure (number) | |||||
| Owner-occupiers | Social renters | Private renters | Total | Owner-occupier pensioner households (percentage) | |
| Note: Pensioner households in this context are defined as those households where the head of household (1995-06 to 2000-01) or the household reference person (2001-02 to 2005-06) were male aged 65+ or female aged 60+). Source: Survey of English Housing. | |||||
Pensions
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for work and Pensions, if he will estimate the total annual cost of uprating (a) the basic state pensions and (b) other benefits of those UK pensioners residing in countries where their benefits are not uprated. [104712]
James Purnell [pursuant to the reply, 14 December 2006, Official Report, c. 1341W]: The estimated annual cost of uprating the state pension for recipients living in frozen rate counties is approximately £420 million of which around £400 million represent the cost of uprating the basic state pension. Generally only the state pension is payable abroad without qualifying conditions.
Note:
Costs have been calculated using March 2006 retirement pension administrative data.
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the additional cost to his Department has been to date of compensating personnel for changes in taxation rates in relation to pensions in 1997-98. [109445]
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will revise figure 8 from the Pensions White Paper, Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System, in which the median earner chooses to defer his state pension until the age of 61 years, if current policies are continued. [112913]
James Purnell: The information requested is not available. Figure 8 from “Security in Retirement: Towards a New Pension System” shows state pension outcomes for a median earner in 2050 and 2053 with and without reform. Under the current system, individuals in 2050 would be able to choose to defer their state pension at 65, the earliest age from which they can do so.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many existing private pension scheme members he estimates have total contributions (employer and employee gross) of less than (a) £5,000 per annum, (b) £6,000 per annum, (c) £7,500 per annum and (d) £10,000 per annum. [113447]
James Purnell: In the White Paper ‘Personal accounts: a new way to save’, the Government proposed an annual limit of £5,000 on contributions into personal accounts. My Department is currently consulting on whether this limit strikes the right balance between focussing personal accounts on the target market, and allowing sufficient flexibility for those personal accounts savers who wish to make additional contributions to meet their retirement aims.
Figures showing the number of employees who are pension scheme members and have total pension contributions (employer and employee) in the requested bands are presented in the following table.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the state pension age addition is calculated; and what plans his Department has to increase its current value. [119241]
James Purnell: The age addition is a fixed amount of 25 pence per week payable to pensioners over the age of 80 with contributory and non-contributory state pension. It has not been increased since its introduction and we have no plans to do so.
However since 1997, we have introduced a whole range of measures which have targeted significant extra help on older pensioners. These includes: winter fuel payment of £300 to people aged 80 and over; free TV licences; age related personal income tax allowance for the over 75s; and pension credit is of particular benefit to this age-group. Over a third of those entitled to pension credit are over the age of 80.
Personal Accounts
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total projected (a) set-up and (b) annual administrative costs are of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority and the Personal Accounts Board as set out in the White Paper Personal Accounts: a new way to save. [113442]
James Purnell: The estimated cost of the delivery authority in its initial advisory stage is set out in the Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) for the first Pensions Bill.
The planned second Bill will introduce the detail of personal accounts, and provide for both the delivery authority’s executive role and for the personal accounts board. Policy is still being developed and the role of these bodies articulated. The RIA which will accompany the planned second Bill will outline the funding requirement for both the executive delivery authority and the personal accounts board.
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the conclusion that there will be less than 10 per cent. of pensioner households in 2050 who may not see any benefit from savings set out page 34 of the White Paper Personal Accounts: a new way to save was reached. [113568]
James Purnell: This is based on projections using the Department’s Pensim2 dynamic microsimulation model. It represents an estimate, after taking account of the proposed reforms to state pension provision, of the proportion of pensioner households in 2050 who might face an initial 100 per cent. reduction in pension credit entitlement in respect of an increase in private pension income. Of these, around three-quarters will be in receipt of premia taking them above the standard guarantee level for example because they are severely disabled or are carers.
In practice, very few pensioners who face a 100 per cent. withdrawal rate at some point will do so over the whole of their retirement; by 2050 just 2 per cent. pensioners will receive the guarantee credit only when they first reach state pension age. Even then, we would expect many to be able to reduce the interaction between additional private saving and benefit entitlement by taking some or all of their private pension income as a lump sum. ‘Less than 10 per cent. of pensioner households’ can therefore be considered a cautious estimate.
Personal Accounts Delivery Authority
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether staff of the new Personal Accounts Delivery Authority will be eligible to join the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme; and if he will make a statement. [118807]
James Purnell: The Pensions Bill that is currently before the House proposes to establish the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority. We have made no provision for its staff to join the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme. The delivery authority will not be a Crown entity and as such employees will not be entitled to Principle Civil Service Pension Scheme pensions.
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