FOI reference - FOI-6307
Date - 1 September 2021
Request
And
What is current / last recorded % split (in terms of AUM and in terms of number) between Defined Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC). Do you have a historical series for this?
Response
I can confirm that we hold some information relating to the second part of your request.
Information we are able to supply
In the tables below, we have provided the information requested in respect of the percentage split of pension schemes between Defined Benefit (DB) and Defined Contribution (DC).
Table 1 shows the number of Occupational DC schemes recorded each year for the past 10 years, split by Micro (fewer than 12 members) and non-Micro categories. We are unable to supply the number of Contract based DC schemes as we do not hold this data.
Table 1
| DC excluding hybrids | Non-micro | Micro | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/12/2011 | 2,670 | 39,330 | 42,000 |
| 31/12/2012 | 2,290 | 36,480 | 38,770 |
| 31/12/2013 | 2,130 | 35,640 | 37,770 |
| 31/12/2014 | 2,020 | 34,430 | 36,450 |
| 31/12/2015 | 1,850 | 32,960 | 34,810 |
| 31/12/2016 | 1,640 | 32,000 | 33,640 |
| 31/12/2017 | 1,400 | 30,530 | 31,930 |
| 31/12/2018 | 1,250 | 29,340 | 30,590 |
| 31/12/2019 | 1,050 | 27,760 | 28,810 |
| 31/12/2020 | 930 | 26,720 | 27,650 |
Table 2 shows the number of Occupational DB schemes recorded each year for the past 10 years.
Table 2
| DB excluding hybrids | No. of schemes |
|---|---|
| 31/12/2011 | 5,850 |
| 31/12/2012 | 5,540 |
| 31/12/2013 | 5,480 |
| 31/12/2014 | 5,200 |
| 31/12/2015 | 5,160 |
| 31/12/2016 | 5,050 |
| 31/12/2017 | 4,830 |
| 31/12/2018 | 4,780 |
| 31/12/2019 | 4,750 |
| 31/12/2020 | 4,720 |
In both cases, we have removed Hybrid schemes (i.e. schemes with both DB and DC elements).
Table 3 then shows the percentage split of total Occupational DC schemes and DB schemes for the past 10 years.
Table 3
| Total | % DC | % DB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31/12/2011 | 47,850 | 88% | 12% |
| 31/12/2012 | 44,310 | 87% | 12% |
| 31/12/2013 | 43,250 | 87% | 13% |
| 31/12/2014 | 41,650 | 88% | 12% |
| 31/12/2015 | 39,970 | 87% | 13% |
| 31/12/2016 | 38,690 | 87% | 13% |
| 31/12/2017 | 36,760 | 87% | 13% |
| 31/12/2018 | 35,370 | 86% | 14% |
| 31/12/2019 | 33,560 | 86% | 14% |
| 31/12/2020 | 32,370 | 85% | 15% |
Further notes:
- Further to the filtering described above, the populations at each effective date are comprised of Occupational, Private sector pension schemes that have a membership of >1, have not wound up or are otherwise not Registrable, are not a Segregated Sectionalised parent scheme, and are not marked as Gone-away. The DB sub-population has been further filtered to remove Relevant Small Schemes.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest 10.
- These figures may differ from other published figures; this is due to the data being extracted at different dates or due to the application of different filters to the ones described above.
Information we are not able to supply
We do not hold data in the manner requested in the first part of your request. This is because whilst we receive data about assets via the Scheme Return, we do not report upon it on an aggregate basis. You may though find it helpful to review the second chart in the section of our Corporate Strategy entitled ‘The pensions landscape and how it will evolve’.
In relation to the second part of your request, we do not hold information that would enable us to answer the question in relation to AUM.