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CPI/RPI Pensions Uprating

That is why—[Interruption.] As the Minister says from a sedentary position, it is mortgage costs, not rents that are excluded. However, the range of other costs that pensioners have to meet are not included—housing-associated costs such as council tax, for example. That is one reason why Age UK undertook detailed research into the real spending patterns of pensioners and arrived at a more realistic assessment in its ““silver retail prices index”” of what price rises pensioners face. That showed that the impact of increases in basics such as fuel costs and food were hitting pensioners harder than both the RPI and the CPI calculated. The weaknesses of CPI have been extensively acknowledged. The EUROSTAT—the European Commission's statistics body, which came up with the original proposals on CPI—is working on a harmonised approach to including housing costs. The Minister acknowledged some of these criticisms in the Welfare Reform Bill Committee and informed us that the Consumer Prices Advisory Committee is undertaking a detailed programme of work to look at ways of including housing costs, but that this would not be concluded in the next ““year or two””. In the meantime, pensioners will lose out—significantly. Despite all the debate about the statistics, we know that the real reason for the move from RPI to CPI is to cut public expenditure. When this matter came before the courts, the Government argued that CPI"““provides a more appropriate measure of benefit and pension recipients' inflation experiences than RPI and a better representation of the way consumers change their consumption patterns in response to price changes.””" They argued that that was the reason for the shift. Three High Court judges agreed that, on the basis of the facts before them, the Government's move to CPI was really the result of their desire to force through budget cuts.