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| The British Wildlife Photography Awards 2010 A photo of a gull has won the British Wildlife Photography Awards. telegraph.co.uk |
Statisticians attack Treasury plan to switch inflation measure Royal Statistical Society calls government plan to peg benefits and pensions to lower CPI measure of cost of living 'flawed'The government was embroiled todayin a row over plans to cut benefit and occupational pension payouts after leading statisticians said moves to link annual rises to a lower measure of inflation were flawed.The Royal Statistical Society said benefit claimants would be unfairly harmed by a shift to the consumer prices index (CPI), which will replace the traditional retail prices index (RPI) from April.It said the CPI failed to reflect the spending patterns of pensioners and people on benefits and the rising costs they faced.The society, which represents the UK's leading statisticians, said the CPI measure was also a poor reflection of costs for workers and should not be used as the inflation index for wage bargaining.Last month the RSS complained to the body charged with overseeing official data, the UK Statistics Authority, about the decision to ditch the RPI measure in favour of the CPI. A response from the UKSA revealed proposals to modify the CPI measure to bring it closer to RPI. But the RSS said UKSA needed to go further.An RSS spokeswoman said: "It has agreed to include housing costs but that only goes part of the way to meeting our concerns."The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, who has criticised the switch, said: "The retail prices index has long been recognised as the best way of measuring ordinary people's cost of living. Ministers may now want to index pensions and many benefits by CPI, but this is a way of making cuts – not any change in the real world cost of living. They should not be allowed to spin lower prices, and official statistics should not meekly fall into line, but stand up for their independence."The Treasury announced earlier this year that from next April benefits including jobseekers' allowance and carers' allowance will rise in line with the CPI measure of inflation. Over the last 10 years the CPI index has risen more slowly than RPI, which includes mortgage interest and other housing costs along with council tax, TV licences and car tax.Critics of the move to the CPI measure, including pensioners' groups and unions, believe the Treasury made the switch to save money. The CPI measure is 0.75 percentage points lower on average than the RPI measure over the last decade.The accountants KPMG have estimated private-sector and public-sector pension savers will lose up to £250bn over the next 40 years in lost inflation-linked rises.Iain Duncan Smith, secretary of state for work and pensions, told a parliamentary select committee that in a "perfect world", the RPI could have remained as the index to calculate future pension entitlements but he said the government needed to save funds.However, Treasury ministers insist that the measure better reflects the spending habits of the poor.A Treasury spokesman said: "It better allows for the substitution of more expensive goods and services within a category of expenditure, has a wider coverage of expenditure, is … more comparable internationally and is the measure of inflation targeted by the Bank of England."Barber said the Treasury was misleading the public with its claim of adopting a measure more aligned with spending habits. He said: "Ministers may pretend that the CPI is a more accurate measure for pensioners because it excludes housing costs but pensioners will give a hollow laugh at any idea that they don't pay council tax, which is excluded from CPI."In any case, there are technical reasons why CPI would be on average 0.5 percent[age points] lower than RPI even if it included housing. This is no high-minded quest for statistical truth, just a squalid cut that will go on reducing pensions and benefits long after the deficit has been brought under control."InflationState benefitsState pensionsOffice for National StatisticsPensionsTUCPhillip Inmanguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Scottish actor Crowden dies at 87 Actor Graham Crowden, who appeared in numerous shows including sitcom Waiting For God and Doctor Who, has died at the age of 87, his agent says. bbc.co.uk |
Divorcing tycoon criticised for killing his 'golden goose' A City tycoon and his wife who will have to sell their £42 million estate to fund a divorce settlement have been criticised by a judge for killing off the "golden goose" that formed the basis of their wealth telegraph.co.uk |
UK 'will lose fewer public jobs' The independent Office for Budget Responsibility says public sector job losses will not be as high as previously thought. bbc.co.uk |