The report says that while there was a pick up in membership of all types of private pension scheme to 8.2m active members in 2013 this is still well below the peak of 12.2m seen in the late sixties and there has been almost continuous decline since then.

ONS says the report - Pension Trends: Private Pension Scheme Membership (Chapter 7), 2014 Edition aims to support the development of pensions policy by providing up to date information on private pension scheme membership.

The Occupational Pension Schemes Survey (OPSS) estimates that, in 2013,
total occupational scheme membership was 27.9 million, with:

• 8.1 million active members;

• 9.6 million pensions in payment; and

• 10.2 million deferred members (those with preserved pension entitlements).

HMRC estimates that in 2012/13 there were 8.2 million active members of personal and stakeholder pensions.

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Chapter 7 of the report discusses membership of all types of non-state pension, referred to as private pensions. These are comprised of occupational schemes for private sector and public sector employees, personal pensions, including individual, group and stakeholder pensions.

The report says that there was a marked increase in the number of active members of private schemes (those contributing or having contribution made on their behalf) between 1953 and 1967 from 6.2 million to 12.2 million, followed by an almost continuous decline between 1967 and 2012 to 7.8 million (Figure 7.1). In 2013, occupational membership rose to 8.1 million.

In the private sector there have been considerable changes in the level of membership. In 1953, private sector membership stood at 3.1 million. In the following years, membership almost tripled, reaching a peak of 8.1 million in 1967. Since then, membership has
been on a general downward trend. In 2012, private sector membership reached its lowest point of 2.7 million. However in 2013 this number increased to 2.8 million, potentially due to automatic enrolment.

The number of active members in the public sector has varied considerably throughout the duration of the survey reaching a peak of 5.5 million in 1979. From 1995 to 2008, public sector membership increased from 4.1 million to 5.4 million, despite the reclassification from 2000 of some large public sector schemes, such as the Post Office and the BBC, to the private sector.

By combining various estimates ONS says it is reasonable to assume that around 13.4 million people aged 16 to 64 in Great Britain are active participants in private pensions of one kind or another.

The proportion of private pension membership for men was higher than that for women in all years however the gender gap is decreasing. For men, the proportion contributing to private pensions fell steeply from 54% to 34% between 1996/97 and 2012/13. In 2012/13, 6.8 million men aged 16 to 64 were contributing to a private pension.