Reference Case Number: FOI10343
Freedom of Information: Right to know request:
- The number of annuity sales
- The total value (in £) of annuity sales
Please provide data broken down by year for each of the five years, with a year-end of March 31.
FCA response:
We can confirm that we hold data on:
- The total number of pensions annuities purchased during the reporting period – see notification question number 30 on the REP015 regulatory return form.
- The total value of Assets under Administration (AUA) for pension plans that were used to purchase annuities - see notification question number 11 on the REP015 regulatory return form. The value is after any Pension Commencement Lump Sum (PCLS) but before annuity purchase.
This data, for the past five years with a year-end of 31 March, can be found in Table 1 below.
This data is collected through our retirement income flow data return (REP015) which is completed every six months by all FCA-regulated providers of pensions, annuities, and income drawdown since 2018. Between 2015 and 2018 we collected this data from a representative sample of these providers.
We publish this data in our annual Retirement Income Market Data publication. However, this publication does not include the total value of AUA for plans that were used to purchase annuities between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018 which is included in Table 1 below.
Our next annual Retirement Income Market Data publication covering the period April 2022 to March 2023 will be published later this year.
Regarding the provided data in Table 1, please note that:
- This data, reported by FCA-regulated firms, reflects pensions plans that were used to purchase an annuity for the first time regardless of whether the plan had previously been accessed in other ways.
- Data collected before April 2018* was collected from a representative sample of firms and therefore we advise to be careful if comparing this data with data collected after April 2018.
Table 1
Total number of purchased pension annuities and value of assets under administration for pension plans used to purchase annuities reported by FCA-regulated firms
| Reporting period | Total number of pension annuities purchased during the reporting period | Total value of AUA for pension plans that were used to purchase annuities during the reporting period (£000) Value after any PCLS but before annuity purchase. |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Oct 2021 - 31 Mar 2022 | 31,806 | £2,351,626 |
| 1 Apr 2021 - 30 Sep 2021 | 36,708 | £2,801,524 |
| 1 Oct 2020 - 31 Mar 2021 | 31,689 | £2,158,946 |
| 1 Apr 2020 - 30 Sep 2020 | 28,694 | £1,945,178 |
| 1 Oct 2019 - 31 Mar 2020 | 31,153 | £1,848,416 |
| 1 Apr 2019 - 30 Sep 2019 | 38,381 | £2,318,600 |
| 1 Oct 2018 - 31 Mar 2019 | 35,987 | £2,181,929 |
| 1 Apr 2018 - 30 Sep 2018 | 37,990 | £2,342,790 |
| 1 Oct 2017 - 31 Mar 2018* | 33,975 | £2,068,662 |
| 1 Apr 2017 - 30 Sep 2017* | 36,891 | £2,214,112 |