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Pensions and Social Security

My hon. Friend is right. I noticed in the most recent figures that the gap between CPI and RPI was just 0.3%. That is historically low, but the numbers and relative values change a great deal. That is why our triple lock says of the basic state pension, ““If it's prices that give you the highest number, we'll pay that; if it's earnings, we'll pay that; and if it's 2.5%, we'll pay that.”” We were determined to ensure that pensioners got the best deal for the basic state pension whatever was happening to the relative value of those numbers. As I made clear in my statement to the House at the end of last year, this Government will use the full value of the September CPI to uprate pensions and social security benefits from April 2012. At a time when the prevailing headline figure for CPI has already fallen to 3.6% and is forecast to fall further during this year, we shall be uprating the overwhelming majority of pensions and benefits by 5.2%.