RPI to CPI Early Day Motion 1032

viridens

Those housing costs include council tax (which is frozen) and mortgage interest payments (which are historically low). These could be ticking timebombs if the economy recovers and grows in the way that government hopes, so I can understand the reluctance to include them. Unless of course they are given a low weighting in the CPI 'basket' of goods.

On that note, I was interested to see the fall in price of digital cameras cited as one reason for the fall in inflation this month. What's that all about? I must remember to eat more of them, or maybe run my car on them ...

exil

viridens wrote: »

Those housing costs include council tax (which is frozen) and mortgage interest payments (which are historically low). These could be ticking timebombs if the economy recovers and grows in the way that government hopes, so I can understand the reluctance to include them. Unless of course they are given a low weighting in the CPI 'basket' of goods.

On that note, I was interested to see the fall in price of digital cameras cited as one reason for the fall in inflation this month. What's that all about? I must remember to eat more of them, or maybe run my car on them ...

Any price index has to be based on averages so will include things I don't spend money on - for example cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women.....

xylophone

"Any price index has to be based on averages so will include things I don't spend money on - for example cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women....."

You old killjoy..:D

teacher_retired

hugheskevi wrote: »

It is looking like the next interesting political decision will be when a new CPI index including housing is developed, and I'd expect that is where lobbying will be directed toward given it seems that the CPI change is a done deal, at least for the next few years.

When the new index comes into existence, CPI will still exist for consistency with international indexes, RPI will still exist due to index linked gilt repayments, and the new third index will also exist.

Based on the court verdicts, it would seem all 3 would meet the requirements to measure the change in the general level of prices.

Which is chosen will be at the discretion of the Government of the day. The status-quo would be CPI, but if the Office for National Statistics were to clearly state that the new CPI measure including housing were the best measure of the change in the general level of prices, that along with a strong lobbying campaign may mean a Govt. coudl find it difficult not to use CPI-housing as their preferred measure of the change in the general level of prices.

This is an area where unions with their current actions could bring pressure to bear on the government by using this as a negotiating compromise tactic if they wished. But will they?

viridens

"In 2007-2008 - the last year for which figures are available - the government paid more subsidy to private sector pension providers, in the form of tax relief to individuals and corporations (£37.6 billion), than was paid out in private pensions that year (£35 billion). In other words, the entire cost of private sector pensions in the UK in that year were made at direct cost to the government. And to provide further contrast, in that year £25 billion was paid out in public sector pensions."
Dr Mary Bousted, ATL general secretary, speaking at a recent conference.

Ripoff_2

Many of you but not all will have a vote soon in the Local Council Elections on May 3rd, and I know they are really for picking your councilors but we can't afford to wait till 2015 to send this bunch of amateurs a message.

The Tories and LD's need to know how we feel and the only way they will listen is if enough of us use that vote wisely. When the MPs see that we no longer Trust them and that their seats are vunerable they will listen to the people. They are treating us as fools and treating us with utter contempt.

Pensioners to this lot are easy targets and what with the RPI to CPI robbery, the Age Allowance robbery and the Savings Robbery its now time to show them we are not the fools they think we are.

Use your vote on May 3rd
Use that vote wisely,
And just maybe enough of us will do the same and they will get the message loud and clear.

Interested_Taxpayer

The legal battle is over. The political fight has now begun.

http://www.cspa.co.uk/

MEY_3

Not unexpected. Well, only the Labour Party have given a half-nod to restoring RPI - if they get into power. I'd be very surprised that even should they, they'd do it in a first term of office so the chances are it will fall off the agenda completely. Any ideas on how to try to get them to be more commited on the issue?

Interested_Taxpayer

I am still awaiting a reply from my Labour MP as to why she abstained in Jim's EDM debate MEY. Labour also pedalled the idea that the CPI should be used temporarily while the deficit was being sorted. It seemed to me that Labour would switch between the RPI and CPI as their circumstances dictated. No great certainty for pensioners in that.
I know that the Green MPs supported Jim's motion. You might also like to note the recent PCS questions below to the leading political parties. Only Caroline Lucas has replied to date. Question 4 relates to pension indexing and while the RPi is not specifically mentioned, Caroline did speak well and voted in favour of Jim's motion in the House of Commons.

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/myvc/party-leader-responses.cfm

MEY_3

It would have been useful if it was clear when the PCS wrote to the respective leaders so we can see how long the latter have been dragging their feet.

Maybe we now need to raise the pressure on housing costs etc being included in CPI or a new index. If we don't, that idea too may get diluted down or pushed aside.