BT Pension Index Linking

Cluker

I agree - don't let it deter you from putting your signature on the list by making assumptions.

One thing that struck me immediately on reading the first paragraph of the Guardian article was that phrase ' using alternative measures '.

That doesn't necessarily equate to using RPI.

If that was what was meant, then why did they not say so specifically??????

Sceptical - who me - no I just remember decades with BT?

Ripoff_2

If we all Copied and Pasted this information and emailed it to ALL our contacts and ask them to do the same. Then more people would see this article, the more the better. Spread the word is the action here!

RPI to CPI Robbery, why you need to act!

This is worth a read
[URL="mhtml:{6EF71D81-FCE8-447B-947D-380BDD9A9C3B}mid://00000056/!x-usc:http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/09/cpi-rpi-lower-cut-chancellor"]http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/09/cpi-rpi-lower-cut-chancellor[/URL]

THESE ARE THE WORDS OF THE NEW STATESMAN from the article above, See attached link above.

1) The switch to CPI is the biggest single stealth move by a chancellor in recent memory.

2) Cumulatively, prices under the RPI have risen 53.6 per cent since 1996 and by 35.6 per cent on the CPI.

3) But amidst all the back and forth over "RPI versus CPI", there remains an awkward truth for the CPI gang: the reason the CPI is a poor measure of the cost of living is that was never intended to be one. It was invented by statisticians as a macroeconomic tool, not least for use by central banks, that would give a comparable measure of price-changes across different countries. In fact, the reason the CPI excludes certain important costs related to housing (unlike the RPI) is not that they're unimportant, but that European countries couldn't agree on a comparable way of measuring them.

THREE very good reasons why people, workers and pensioners should sign the e-petition at [URL="mhtml:{6EF71D81-FCE8-447B-947D-380BDD9A9C3B}mid://00000056/!x-usc:http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535"]http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535[/URL] WE need over 100k to do so.

THREE very good reasons why everyone should fight this change and lobby their MP, write with these facts.

THREE very good reasons why you should send this Email around your friends and family. Tell all you can. Spread the word when ever you can.

THREE very good reasons why RPI should be restored because YOU are being robbed and cheated out of thousands of pounds, not only in benefits and pensions but also in tax allowances.


PLEASE as a first step sign the e-petition!
[URL="mhtml:{6EF71D81-FCE8-447B-947D-380BDD9A9C3B}mid://00000056/!x-usc:http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535"]http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/1535[/URL]

CAN YOU AFFORD NOT TO?

Thank You

Aberdeenangarse

Stop whinging!

ermine

The switch to CPI is the biggest single stealth move by a chancellor in recent memory.

it was positively transparent compared to Gordon Browns dividend taxation in 1997 that destroyed Britain's final salary pensions.

How about a more productive route for your energy. Save into an ISA for dividend income to make up the difference. I know yelling and hollering it isn't fair is probably great fun, but it doesn't actually do anything for you. Start investing for your future, shares are cheapish at the moment

de1amo

nice to have the extra money to gamble on shares that seem no better than going down the bookies given the world economy

Ripoff_2

ermine wrote: »

it was positively transparent compared to Gordon Browns dividend taxation in 1997 that destroyed Britain's final salary pensions.

How about a more productive route for your energy. Save into an ISA for dividend income to make up the difference. I know yelling and hollering it isn't fair is probably great fun, but it doesn't actually do anything for you. Start investing for your future, shares are cheapish at the moment

This issue is to do with what is right and what is wrong.

It is wrong to use pension indexation for deficit reduction, especially when this is a permanent change, plus inflation is inflation and to use a lesser measure of inflation against pensioners is totally wrong, especially as pensioner inflation is actually far higher than even the RPI official inflation rate.

It is wrong to use a measure of inflation, CPI that even the experts say is not and was not ever designed for pensioner indexing.

It is wrong to break the fundamental trust of pensions, in that accrued rights are protected and pensions in payment are not touched.

It's not only to do with the lack of fairness, it's basically to do with the injustice and the fact that this change is basically wrong. If pension inflation is to be changed then at least there should have been consultation and agreement, there was none!

It's basically THEFT on a grand scale and is a cynical form of Gvmt betrayal.

So though you may think that it is OK to be Robbed and cheated, I do not, you also may also think that it doesn't matter, well I do because if this is allowed to continue, then where does it end. The Gvmt has a duty to maintain pensioner inflation rises to the general level of price increases but that does not mean that it gives them the right to use a lesser index to reduce the deficit, irrespective of their actual duty.

It's definitely not morally and I suspect legally right to do so, the judicial review will answer that.

Regarding investing in my future. Being retired I can't actually now invest in my future. I believed I had already done that whilst working and paying for an RPI indexed linked pension, only now to see that being stolen from me. I would love to buy cheap shares as you say but now I am not working, that window has been closed for me, I don't have the spare cash I'm afraid. As my pension falls with CPI indexing over time it will become even harder to even put food on the table never mind buying shares.

So I am not whinging, but actually fighting for my long term survival and basically fighting for what I paid for during my working life.

Robbery and Theft are wrong, as I would hope you will agree and it's still WRONG when it's the Government that is doing the thieving!

Stargazer57

Ripoff wrote: »

I believed I had already done that whilst working and paying for an RPI indexed linked pension

I'm sure you worked very hard, but the idea that you paid for and RPI linked pension while you were working is laughable. Have you any idea what it would cost to buy one?

PS Not sure what deficit reduction has got to do with BT.

Cluker

Stargazer57 wrote: »

I'm sure you worked very hard, but the idea that you paid for and RPI linked pension while you were working is laughable. Have you any idea what it would cost to buy one?

PS Not sure what deficit reduction has got to do with BT.

No - that is not laughable one bit - it is what the pension documentation said even until quite recently.

Yes, we do know what it cost us buy one - we bought one.

What it would cost to buy one starting today on a new 'contract' is not relevant - we bought ours over many years, often 40 years.

Ripoff_2

Stargazer57 wrote: »

I'm sure you worked very hard, but the idea that you paid for and RPI linked pension while you were working is laughable. Have you any idea what it would cost to buy one?

PS Not sure what deficit reduction has got to do with BT.

The deficit reduction has nothing to do with BT, that's my point. So why am I being hit by the Gvmts deficit reduction plan. I was getting RPI indexing as per the agreement until the Gvmt changed the indexing and suddenly I am now getting CPI indexation. This is due to the fact that the BT section B pension is linked to the Gvmt indexation uprating. So I have lost money to pay for a deficit reduction that in fact does not reduce the deficit but rewards BT and the shareholders.

Further more in the pension review documentation it states the following : "Section B pensions are guaranteed to increase each year in line with the Retail Prices Index (RPI)". Now any reasonable person would think that means Section B pensions are index by RPI and Guaranteed to do so. But that is not the case it would appear. It actually means pensions are guaranteed to increase but by an index measure set by the Government uprating, so now it's CPI not RPI.

So it's not laughable at all, it was told to us loud and clear but it appears we have not been told the truth and hence we have paid for something we now not getting, hence why we are fighting.

Old_Slaphead

Weren't BT employees TUPEd into the private sector? Surely that means that you've got to accept the (usually) good with the (occasionally) bad bits of the deal.