RPI to CPI Early Day Motion 1032

teacher_retired

Are we now completely defeated or is there any glimmer of hope anywhere?

shaunrc

teacher_retired wrote: »

Are we now completely defeated or is there any glimmer of hope anywhere?

Hi teacher retired

Today was a good day because an attempt to change the numbers without proper evidence and consultation was blocked. So it was a good thing, if you wnat more detail I explain in the article linked too below.

http://www.mindfulmoney.co.uk/wp/shaun-richards/victory-on-the-uk-retail-price-index-and-it-feels-good/#disqus_thread

AndyJ52

Does anybody on here happen to know whether MP's pensions are still adjusted each year by RPI or has their pension scheme also been moved to the widely adopted CPI measure of inflation now?

SnowMan

AndyJ52 wrote: »

Does anybody on here happen to know whether MP's pensions are still adjusted each year by RPI or has their pension scheme also been moved to the widely adopted CPI measure of inflation now?

The following suggests it is CPI

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN06283

Reform of MPs’ pensions is underway. Like other public service pensions, MPs’ pensions are now increased in line with the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), rather than the Retail Prices Index (RPI)

wakeupalarm

MP's want a £20000 pay rise, won't this increase their already inflated finaly salary pensions massively whether cpi or rpi.

Andy_L

wakeupalarm wrote: »

MP's want a £20000 pay rise, won't this increase their already inflated finaly salary pensions massively whether cpi or rpi.

Not necessaraly, plenty of bits if the public sector have non-consilidated (ie non-personable) pay rises or pay part of salary as a "bonus" to avoid it being pensionable

Ripoff_2

Hi All,
I have been doing some work on the NET effect of the Coalitions changes to Private Pension income over the past 3 years.

I hear banded about that people are £600 better off due to the Coalition changes. I didn’t believe that was the case hence the following calculations.


1) If you take a GROSS £10,000 private pension income in 2010 before the coalition changes then you took home NET £9,295 in 2010

So what would you take home today 2013 if things had stayed the same, NO Coalition changes?

2) Your 2013 starting pension would be GROSS £11,333 and you would have an income of NET £10,520 today with NO CHANGES. (pension & Tax Allowances raised by RPI)

As you know the Coalition has raised the Tax Allowance over the past three years from £6,475 in 2010 to £9,440 in April 2013 but what difference has it made?

3) In April 2013 with a £9,440 tax allowance and a starting pension of GROSS £11,333 RPI indexed pension, your income is NET £10,954.

With No changes to the Tax Allowance & indexing your income would have been NET £10,520. Taken from 2)

So a RPI indexed Pension today 2013 is higher by NET £435 (10,954-10,520=435) than it would have been without the Coalition changes.

BUT this is not the full story, the Coalition changed the pension indexing from RPI to CPI in 2010 for many private & public pensioners so what effect did this have.

4) In 2013 the RPI to CPI change has had the effect of reducing the income from GROSS £11,333 with RPI to GROSS £11,085 with CPI

BUT what is the NET effect after the Tax allowance is taken into account.

5) In 2013 your income has been reduced to NET £10,756 with CPI indexing even taking into account the Tax Allowance change, therefore a CPI indexed private pension is NOT £600 better off, the figure I hear the Coalition banding about, and NOT £434 better off as the RPI indexed pensioner but ONLY £236 (10,756-10,520=236) better off than they would have been without the Coalition Changes.

So the Coalition changes are not really what the headlines would have you believe.

It is true you are better off than you would have been without the changes to the Tax Allowance but you are being made worse off over time with the RPI to CPI change. Especially once the tax allowances revert to the normal uprating than you would have been with RPI indexing before the Coalition changed it to the CPI Robbery Index.

In a nutshell

An RPI indexed linked private pensioner based on a Gross £10k pension income in 2010 is over £199 per year better off than the same CPI indexed linked pensioner is now per year in 2013. That has to be SO WRONG. Inflation for both private pensioners is the same in the shops, how can it be right to have two different pensioner indexes that have produced such a large variance in income.

In this example a CPI linked private pensioner is over NET £16 per month worse off than a RPI linked pensioner, purely due to RPI indexing.

THIS REALLY IS UNFAIR, ITS UNJUST & PLAINLY WRONG!

Hence WHY we have to keep fighting for the restoration of RPI indexing, we can not afford not to.

Ripoff_2

teacher_retired wrote: »

Are we now completely defeated or is there any glimmer of hope anywhere?

There is always hope, we can not afford to give up on this and if you look at my £10k example in the previous post as to the true effect of CPI it should make you even more angry.

Of course the higher or lower the pension income the higher or lower the effect but either way many pensioners are now being penalised by the Coalition more than other pensioners who lets face it buy their food, goods and energy in exactly the same market as we do. RPI increased pensioners see exactly the same inflation as CPI increased pensioners, HOW can it be RIGHT to have TWO different uprating indices.

This is why this change was and is SO WRONG. The ONS reluctance and now action NOT to adjust the RPI down to the lesser CPI actually assists our argument and should be used at every opportunity to force the point home. The ONS said that reducing the RPI was detrimental to Bonds & Pensioners income. WE already know that and we need to drive that point home!

BobQ

Andy_L wrote: »

Not necessaraly, plenty of bits if the public sector have non-consilidated (ie non-personable) pay rises or pay part of salary as a "bonus" to avoid it being pensionable

Grasping and straws come to mind. MPs will get any increase as consolidated pay. And yes it will add to their bloated pensions

BobQ

teacher_retired wrote: »

Are we now completely defeated or is there any glimmer of hope anywhere?

Defeated? Yes in short. The reality is that teachers and other public sector workers either (a) agree with the reductions to their terms and conditions or (b) do not believe they can win if they strike or (c) are too professional to strike or (d) cannot be bothered to object to changes they disagree with.

Hope? No, most people outside the PS have been conditioned into thinking that state employees are lucky to have a job, overpaid and enjoy huge pensions they do not deserve.

And for those already retired all they can do is vote for a party which will do the unpopular thing. ie for ????? Yes that is a problem finding a party that supports the unpopular and can get elected.