CHAPTER 5 - GOVERNMENT STATISTICS

Abstract

This chapter discusses the U.K. government financial statistics. The economy, for national accounting purposes, is divided into sectors; the two sectors relevant to pension funds are the personal sector, and the financial companies and institutions sector. Figures relating to pension funds are usually combined with those relating to life insurance funds, and for practical reasons, they are often difficult to separate. In the national accounts, life insurance and pension funds are treated as a part of the personal sector for the income and expenditure accounts, but as part of the financial companies and institutions sector for the capital and financial accounts. Although pension fund expenditure in the form of administrative expenses forms part of personal sector expenditure crossing sector boundaries, expenditure in the form of pensions and other benefits represents transfers within the sector and so does not form part of personal sector expenditure. The difference between the funds income and expenditure represents the net amount that the funds have available for investment. In the personal sector financial account, it is recorded as an increase in peoples claims on the funds and in the accounts of the financial companies and institutions as a corresponding liability. Transactions of the funds are recorded in the capital financial accounts of the financial companies, and institutions sectors.