asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the yield of employers' national insurance contributions in 1977–78, including the allocations to the National Health Service and the redundancy fund, and also the national insurance surcharge, both in total and as divided, however, approximately, between private sector and public sector employees; and what are his best estimates of the comparable figures for 1978–79.
Of the Class 1 contributions, including the National Health Service, redundancy fund and national insurance surcharge, received in 1977–78 for employees in Great Britain, it is provisionally estimated that £6,793 million is from employers. On the assumptions stated in the report by the Government Actuary on the Benefit Up-rating Order 1978 (Cmnd. 7232) the corresponding figure for 1978–79 is £7,604 million.The division of the contributions in 1977–78 was approximately one-fifth to the public sector and four-fifths to the private sector. The private sector proportion may increase slightly in 1978–79 because of the higher proportion of employees in the public sector who will be paying national insurance contributions at the contracted-out rate.