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22 Oct 2008 : Column 403W—continued


Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the proportion of private sector employers who offered a pension to their employees in each year since 1997 for which figures are available. [226172]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is presented as follows:


22 Oct 2008 : Column 404W

Percentage of firms with any pension provision

1998

34

2000

29

2003

52

2005

44

Notes:
1. All figures are estimates taken from the Employers' Pension Provision Survey. 2005 is the latest year published. The coverage of the survey is private sector employers in Great Britain.
2. Stakeholder pensions were introduced in April 2001, and from October 2001 employers with five or more employees and no other pension provision were required to provide access to Stakeholder pensions. This is reflected in the increase in employer pension provision between 2000 and 2003.
3. Pension provision includes occupational schemes, Group Personal Pensions, Stakeholder Pensions (including schemes with no members and/or no contributions) and firms that contribute to Personal Pensions.
Source:
DWP Employers' Pension Provision Survey

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent steps the Government has taken to encourage employers to provide pensions for their staff. [227373]

Ms Rosie Winterton: A holding reply was sent on 20 October 2008.

Many employers already help their workers to provide for their retirement through workplace pensions. To encourage this and increase participation in workplace pension schemes, our reform programme includes measures that will remove some of the regulatory burdens on schemes and employers and from 2012 employers will have a statutory duty to enrol workers into workplace pension saving that meets minimum standards. We estimate these reforms will lead to between six million to nine million more people newly participating or saving more in workplace pensions.

Pensioners

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much his Department has spent on (a) pension credit, (b) the second state pension, (c) the basic state pension, (d) widow's benefit, (e) free television licenses, (f) Christmas bonuses, (g) attendance allowance paid to pensioners and (h) carers allowance paid to pensioners expressed in current prices in each of the last 10 years. [226178]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is in the table.


22 Oct 2008 : Column 405W

22 Oct 2008 : Column 406W
Expenditure on selected DWP benefits paid to pensioners
Great Britain, 2008- 09 prices (a) Pension Credit and predecessors (b) SERPS and S2P (c) Basic State Pension (d) Widow's and Bereavement Benefits (e) Over 75 TV Licence (f) Christmas Bonus (g) Attendance Allowance (h) Carer's Allowance

1997-98

4,992

4,189

40,255

185

184

3,336

1998-99

4,671

4,724

41,226

174

181

3,459

1999-00

4,783

5,563

42,261

163

170

3,571

2000-01

5,108

5,901

42,427

150

381

169

3,686

2001-02

5,465

6,490

44,578

145

445

166

3,806

2002-03

5,297

6,932

45,474

179

442

162

3,840

2003-04

5,569

7,632

45,755

162

473

162

3,968

42

2004-05

6,670

8,225

46,291

154

486

159

4,104

43

2005-06

7,030

8,928

47,327

138

504

156

4,293

39

2006-07

7,305

9,564

47,506

120

519

154

4,413

42

2007-08

7,582

10,482

48,826

106

525

152

4,572

48

Notes:
1. Pension credit replaced income support for people over 60/minimum income guarantee in 2003-04. Figures include spending on men aged 60 to 64.
2. The main reason for the decline in the payment of widow's and bereavement benefits from 2002-03 is due to changes in the criteria for receipt of the benefits. Widow's benefit is now closed to new claimants, who now receive a bereavement benefit instead. In addition, persons in receipt of widow's and bereavement benefits now receive state pension on reaching state pension age. Previously, persons in receipt of widow's benefit continued to receive this benefit on reaching state pension age and did not receive a state pension. Also, a declining mortality rate means a slight reduction in the numbers claiming these benefits.
3. Over 75 TV licences expenditure is on a UK basis, and was introduced in 2000-01.
4. Christmas bonus comprises of contributory and non-contributory payments and includes all payments made including a small amount to people not of pension age.
5. Carer's allowance replaced invalid care allowance in 2002-03. Consistent estimates of payment of the benefit to pensioners are only available from 2003-04.
Source:
DWP Benefits expenditure tables and accounting data for 2007-08.

Pensioners: Poverty

John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Government is taking to reduce pensioner poverty. [228456]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Tackling pensioner poverty continues to be one of this Government's key priorities.

The Government have introduced a number of measures to help older people out of poverty. In 1997, the poorest pensioners lived on around £69 a week, today pension credit ensures that no-one needs to live on less than £124.05 a week (£189.35 for a couple). We have successively raised the standard minimum guarantee in pension credit at least in line with earnings in every year since its introduction, and the value of the safety-net we provide for the poorest pensioners has increased by over a third in real terms since 1997.

We have made good progress in tackling pensioner poverty. Between 1998-99 and 2006-07 the number of pensioners in low income in the UK has fallen from 2.9 million to 2.1 million (measured by 60 per cent. of contemporary median income after housing costs.)

Our commitments in the Pensions Act 2007 to continue to uprate the pension credit standard minimum guarantee at least in line with earnings over the long term, and to reintroduce the earnings link to basic state pension from 2012, or by the end of the next Parliament, will help secure the gains we have made into the future.

We will continue to strive to ensure that older people are aware of, and take up their entitlements through initiatives such as: using sophisticated data matching to identify those who may be entitled to, but not currently receiving, benefits; home visits for vulnerable customers; local and national advertising and media campaigns; a simple and straight-forward claim process; and ever closer working with partner organisations.

In addition to pension credit we have increased winter fuel payments to £200 for households with someone aged 60-79, and £300 for those with someone aged 80 or over. We will be making an additional payment for winter 2008-09 of £50 for households with someone aged 60 to 79 and £100 for those with someone aged 80 or over. Since 1997, we have also introduced free eye-tests, free off-peak bus travel for pensioners and free television licences for over 75s.

Pensioners: Social Security Benefits

John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what steps the Government is taking to encourage the take up of benefits that remain unclaimed by pensioners each year. [228457]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Addressing pensioner poverty has been one of the Government's key priorities since 1997. The number of pensioners in relative low income has fallen from 2.9 million in 1998-99 to 2.1 million in 2006-07. Pensioners are less likely to be in poverty, as measured by relative incomes after housing costs are accounted for, than the population as a whole.

Maximising the take-up of benefits is crucial to tackling poverty levels. Since pension credit was introduced in 2003 the number of pensioners in relative low income has fallen by around 500,000.

We are making every effort to ensure that people are aware of and claim their entitlement.

We have simplified the claim process to make pension credit easier to claim. Customers no longer need to sign and return their pension credit claim forms, claims can be made entirely over the phone.

This autumn 2008, we are introducing a measure which will enable claims to housing benefit and council tax benefit made over the phone with pension credit to be forwarded directly to the local authority without the need for a signature—this is a significant simplification to the claim process and should benefit thousands of pensioners.

In February 2007, an additional question was introduced in the pension credit application process to identify relevant caring responsibilities in order to invite the customer, where appropriate, to claim carer's allowance using a new, shortened, claim pack specifically designed for people of pension age.

In addition we are using sophisticated data matching to identify eligible non- recipients, home visits for vulnerable customers, targeted local marketing and media campaigns and ever closer working with partner organisations.

Pensions

Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of adults who were not members of any pension scheme in each year since 1997. [226176]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The following table gives a time series breakdown of working age adults who were not members of any active private pension scheme.


22 Oct 2008 : Column 407W

Number of working age adults who were not members of any private pension scheme (million) Total number of working age adults (million) Percentage of working age adults who were not a member of any private pension scheme

1999-2000

17.3

31.8

54

2000-01

17.5

32.0

55

2001-02

17.6

32.3

54

2002-03

17.9

32.5

55

2003-04

18.3

32.5

56

2004-05

18.7

32.5

57

2005-06

19.0

32.8

58

Notes:
1. All figures are estimates and are taken from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). 2005-06 is the latest year for which these data are available.
2. Results are presented for 1990-2000 onwards. Data in earlier years are not comparable because of the implementation of improvements in government surveys relating to pensions from that date.
3. Private pension refers to either an occupational, personal or stakeholder pension scheme.
4. Working age is ages 20-59 for women and 20-64 for men.
Source:
Family Resources Survey, Great Britain, 1999-2000 to 2005-06

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