Recommendation 21

When asked about what information was available on employees that opt out of public service pension schemes, HM Treasury told us it did not collect this information.45 HM Treasury told us that individual pension schemes often provided assessments of opt-out rates to public pay review boards, but detailed breakdown were not always available.46 For example, the Teachers’ Pension Schemes only provides an estimate of overall participation. HM Treasury provided us with some data on overall opt-out rates: • NHS Pension Scheme – 10% of employees opted out of their pension, the equivalent of around 180,000 employees. • Teachers’ Pension Scheme – 7% to 8% of employees opted out of their pension, the equivalent of around 53,000 to 61,000 employees. • Civil Service Pension Scheme – less than 1% of employees opted out of their pension, the equivalent of around 5,000 employees.47 40 Qq 85–88 41 HC Committee of Public Accounts, The impact of the 2007–08 changes to public service pensions, Thirty-eighth Report of Session 2010–2012, HC 833, May 2011. 42 Qq 3, 16, 20, 25, 32 43 Q 47 44 Q 83 45 Q 30 46 Qq 42–46 47 Q 43 14 Public Sector Pensions