Employees in occupational pension schemes 1953-1995, UK
 
Source:  The Changing Welfare state: Pensioner Incomes , DSS, March 2000.

The assets of pension funds have declined relative to those of unit trusts and insurance companies, as can be seen from the following table:

Total assets of unit and investment trusts, insurance companies and pension funds (£ bn)

unit trusts/ investment trusts/ insurance companies/ pension funds
end 1993 88 29 434 480
end 1998 163 47 776 699

Source: Financial Statistics , HMSO, April 1966 and April 2000.

The assets of pensions funds are given by the ABI. It be seen that there was a drop in the percentage of funds held by self-administered schemes from 76.6% in 1987 to 67.3% in 1995.