Latest results in MQ5 tables.
More about this survey
The MQ5 surveys are statutory sample surveys covering long-term insurance companies and self-administered pension funds. There are separate questionnaires for income and expenditure, transactions in financial assets and the balance sheet.
The target population for the self-administered pension funds is all self-administered pension funds in the UK, including those that are partly insured. The quarterly income and expenditure survey includes information on employees' and employers' normal and additional pension contributions, payments made, and transfers to and from other pension schemes. The quarterly transactions in financial assets collects information on investment flows by and holdings of self-administered pension funds.
The population for the long-term insurance surveys is drawn from returns to the Financial Services Authority. These surveys cover both life and pensions business written by insurance companies where pensions business includes both occupational schemes and personal pensions. The quarterly and annual surveys into the income and expenditure of long-term insurance companies collect data on single and regular pension premiums, each broken down into individual/personal and occupational premiums, and on claims payable. The quarterly transactions in financial assets and annual balance sheet surveys collect data on investment flows by and holdings of long-term insurance companies.
The results for long-term insurance and self-administered pension funds are published in separate tables. There is no adjustment made to the results for long-term insurance companies for either transfers or for investment flows into insurance managed funds from self-administered pension funds. There are some caveats in interpreting the results:
- The statistics on occupational pension inflows reported by pension funds and insurance companies taken together need to be adjusted to take account of transfers and investment in insurance managed funds to remove any double counting on occupational pension contributions.
- Occupational pension premiums reported by insurance companies include bulk buyout premiums and overstate premiums before 2004
- For personal pensions, the contributions statistics include transfers
- For personal pensions, the contributions statistics include premiums for pension annuities and income drawdown and will overstate contributions to personal pensions
Estimates of total pension contributions excluding double counting for the years from 1995 to 2002 were published in an article Private Pension Estimates and the National Accounts
The long-term insurance income and expenditure questionnaires were revised from the first quarter 2004 for the quarterly surveys and for the 2003 annual surveys to collect additional detail. Other changes were made to ensure consistent reporting. Table 2.5 provides a reconciliation comparing old and new questions on premiums and claims for the quarterly results.
For long-term insurance see tables 2.4, 2.5
For self-administered pension funds see tables 4.1, 4.2, 4.3.
This page last revised: Tuesday, 15 March 2005
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