Written question asked by David Laws (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 6 June 2007, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 June 2007. It was answered by Stephen Timms (Labour) on Monday, 25 June 2007 on behalf of the Treasury.

Public Sector: Pensions

Question: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) when his Department plans to publish the latest estimates of public sector unfunded pension liabilities; and if he will make a statement;

Answer: The unfunded public service pension liability as at 31 March 2005 was estimated to be £530 billion, and a technical paper explaining the methodology underlying this estimate is in the House Library. A new estimate will be published in due course.The total liability estimate covers all the pensions due to be paid to current and future pensioners in unfunded pension schemes, which will be paid at different times over the next eight decades, and which have been earned by around 10 million current and former public servants and their dependants over the last eight decades.The cash payments needed to service these payments remain stable and fully affordable. In 2004-05, around £18 billion was spent on paying unfunded, public service occupational pensions. This compares with around £17 billion in 2003-04. Both of these figures are in cash terms.And as the latest Long Term Public Finance Report demonstrates, these annual cash payments are projected to remain completely affordable in the long-term, rising gradually to only 2 per cent. of GDP in 50 years time, contributing to the strong position the UK economy is in to meet the fiscal challenges of the future.

Secondary information