Factsheets and supporting material

This page contains some of the factsheets the Department has published to clarify and explain the reform proposals and some of the research undertaken to support these proposals.

Factsheets

• Projections of entitlement to Income Related Benefits to 2050 (97KB)

This factsheet presents updated projections of entitlement to Pension Credit and new projections of entitlement to Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and any income related benefit under the reformed state pension system. It also describes the possible interaction between private pensions, after reform and entitlement to the income related benefits.

• Pensions Reform factsheet (561KB)

This factsheet sets out revised projections of spending on pension benefits, and estimates of pension income in the future under pension reform.  The revised figures take into account a number of changes including new economic assumptions, minor improvements in modelling, and they present the figures in 2007/8 prices and earnings terms.

• State Pension Coverage: Lower Earnings Limit and multiple jobs (114KB)

This factsheet presents analysis of the number of people who earn less than the Lower Earnings Limit in two jobs and are therefore not liable to pay National Insurance contributions and do not accrue State Pension, even if, when combined, their earnings are above the limit.

• Making the state pension fairer and more widely available (33KB)

This factsheet describes the Government's proposals for addressing the gaps in state pension coverage, including reducing the number of qualifying years.

• New Carers Credit (61KB)

This factsheet outlines the Government's proposals for a new, more generous weekly carers' credit.

• Employers' attitudes and likely reactions to the personal account reforms 2008: A quantitative survey (57KB)

This factsheet presents emerging findings from a new nationally representative survey of employers' attitudes and likely behaviour in response to automatic enrolment with a minimum employer contribution and the setting up of a new personal accounts scheme

• Individuals' attitudes and likely reactions to the personal account reforms 2008: A quantitative survey (49KB)

This factsheet presents emerging findings from a new nationally representative survey of people likely to be eligible for automatic enrolment under the Government's reforms, including evidence on public attitudes to automatic enrolment and the minimum employer contribution, and estimates of the likely behaviour of individuals if they were automatically enrolled.

• People benefiting from private pension reform: explanation of participation estimates – November 2007 (156KB)

This factsheet presents analysis on the impact of the introduction of automatic enrolment, minimum employer contributions and the new personal accounts scheme on the number of people saving in a workplace pension scheme. It sets out current working assumptions on pension participation following the reforms, and explains how this analysis has evolved since that presented in the May and December 2006 Regulatory Impact Assessments.

• People benefiting from private pension reform: explanation of participation estimates – September 2009 (60KB)

This factsheet presents updated analysis on the impact of the introduction of automatic enrolment, minimum employer contributions and the new personal accounts scheme on the number of people saving in a workplace pension scheme. It sets out current working assumptions on pension participation following the reforms, and explains how this analysis has evolved since that presented in the factsheet published in November 2007

Briefing pack for advisers

• State Pensions Reform briefing pack for advisers (160KB)

This pack aims to support any adviser whose customers wish to understand how they may be affected by changes to State Pensions coming into effect from 6 April 2010. These changes will make State Pensions simpler, fairer and more widely available and will have wide-ranging effects.

• State Pension changes and what they mean for you (249KB)

This leaflet is part of the Government’s campaign to raise awareness of the forthcoming increase to the State Pension age for women, to ensure that all those affected by the reforms understand what the changes will mean for them personally. Over a three year period, from April 2009 to January 2012, we will be writing to approximately 1.9m women to explain the changes. All women affected will receive a letter telling them the date when they will be entitled to receive their State Pension, and a copy of this leaflet, which contains some additional information about State Pension reforms and signposts to sources of further information.

Analytical Papers

• Estimating Economic and Social Welfare Impacts of Pension Reform (1.34MB)

This Pensions Technical Working Paper explores methods of estimating, and provides quantification of these methodologies, the impact of pensions reform on the UK economy and people's well-being.

• Financial incentives to save for retirement (534KB) – this paper presents the analysis underlying the Governments estimates of returns on savings in personal accounts.