asked the Minister for the Civil Service what, in current value terms, were the pensions paid under the Civil Service pension scheme in 1974–75 and 1975–76; and what are his estimates in current value terms for the pensions payable in 1976–77, 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995.
Net expenditure on Civil Service superannuation in current value terms (i.e. at 1976–77 prices) was £228 million in 1974–75 and £288 million in 1975–76. The present estimate for 1976–77 is £312 million and for 1980–81 it is £430 million. No estimates have been made of annual expenditure in years beyond 1980–81.
asked the Minister for the Civil Service what would be the saving to public expenditure in 1976–77 if the index linking of public service pensions had been subject to a limit equivalent to the rise in incomes permitted by the pay policy for the year August 1976 to July 1977; and what is his estimate of tax offset on this saving.
I regret that exact figures for all the public services are not available. However, the information for the Civil Service is as follows:The cost of increasing Civil Service pensions on 1st December by 13·8 per cent. is estimated at £31 million for a full year. If the present pay policy, including the £2·50 minimum, were to be strictly applied to Civil Service pension increases, the cost in the same period would be £39 million. Thus there would be no saving to public funds, but an extra cost of £8 million. This is because a 13·8 per cent. increase will mean less than £2·50 for some 220,000 of the 293,000 in receipt of Civil Service pensions. It is reasonable to assume that the rest of the public services would follow a similar pattern. As there would be no saving, there would be no tax offset.