Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he made of the effect of the option for people to top up their state pension on state pensions expenditure.
Answered by Steve Webb
Estimates were made of both the future AME expenditure and the revenue from contributions in 2015-16 and 2016-17 which would determine future state pension expenditure levels. Estimates made by the Department were certified by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Figures for the medium term impacts in cash terms were published on page 46 in Budget 2014: policy costings available at:
Further information on the long-term Exchequer impact in 2013-14 price terms is included in the table below. As noted in the policy costings document, there is uncertainty about levels of take-up of this policy. If take-up was higher than assumed both AME and Revenue would increase and if take-up was lower than assumed then both would decrease.
| AME | Revenue |
2014-15 | 0 | 0 |
2015-16 | -15 | +415 |
2016-17 | -50 | +410 |
2017-18 | -65 | 0 |
2018-19 | -65 | 0 |
2019-20 | -60 | 0 |
2020-21 | -60 | 0 |
2021-22 | -55 | 0 |
2022-23 | -55 | 0 |
2023-24 | -55 | 0 |
2024-25 | -50 | 0 |
2025-26 | -45 | 0 |
2026-27 | -45 | 0 |
2027-28 | -40 | 0 |
2028-29 | -40 | 0 |
2029-30 | -35 | 0 |
2030-31 | -35 | 0 |
2031-32 | -30 | 0 |
2032-33 | -30 | 0 |
2033-34 | -25 | 0 |
Notes to table: Figures are in £m, 2013-14 price terms, rounded to nearest £5m.
Asked by: Gregg McClymont (Labour - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people of pensionable age providing unpaid childcare support.
Answered by Steve Webb
The information requested is not available. The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents estimates that grandparents provided informal childcare for 1.8m children in 1.4m families in 2012/13 with 4% of these families making some form of payment to the grandparent. We are unable to identify the ages of these grandparents; previous studies have shown that around half of grandparents are aged over 65.
Source for grandparent age distribution:
Source for Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents-2012-to-2013