Theresa May MP (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Also Shadow Minister for Women), Work and Pensions; Maidenhead, Conservative) in a written question to Angela Eagle (Minister of State (Pensions and the Ageing Society), Department for Work and Pensions; Wallasey, Labour) asked
(1) how many and what proportion of those employed in the (a) public and (b) private sector were contributing to a pension plan in each of the last 10 years;
(2) how many and what proportion of (a) public and (b) private sector employees had no pension provision in each of the last 10 years.
As you may expect the answer for public sector schemes was quite high at around 84% take up, rising every year from 1997.
By contrast the figures for private sector workers kept falling and the table is reproduced below.
| Number of private sector employee jobs by pension provision | ||||
| Total with pension provision( 1) (thousand) | Percentage | Total without pension provision (thousand) | Percentage | |
| 1997 | 7,854 | 46 | 9,128 | 54 |
| 1998 | 8,034 | 46 | 9,427 | 54 |
| 1999 | 8,220 | 46 | 9,592 | 54 |
| 2000 | 8,363 | 46 | 9,763 | 54 |
| 2001 | 8,530 | 46 | 9,911 | 54 |
| 2002 | 8,872 | 48 | 9,537 | 52 |
| 2003 | 8,637 | 47 | 9,734 | 53 |
| 2004 | 8,007 | 44 | 10,007 | 56 |
| 2005 | 7,861 | 42 | 10,694 | 58 |
| 2006 | 7,942 | 43 | 10,722 | 57 |
| 2007 | 7,845 | 41 | 11,291 | 59 |
| 2008 | 7,576 | 39 | 11,764 | 61 |
| 2009, | 6,957 | 37 | 11,655 | 63 |
| (1) All employees including those whose pay was affected by absence. Notes:
1. 1997 is the first year for which ASHE pension membership data are available. 2. Private sector includes employees from private companies, sole proprietors, partnerships, and non-profit institutions serving households. 3. Figures will include some employees who are members of a pension scheme but not making an employee contribution, for example through a salary sacrifice scheme. 4. Figures for number of jobs are for indicative purposes only and should not be considered an accurate estimate of employee job counts. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), United Kingdom. |
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This is very frightening reading because there are going to be a lot of people who are going to struggle in retirement.