A hat tip to this morning's Morning Star for alerting me to the excellent work of the TUC in exposing the blatant hypocrisy of the Tory Coalition when it comes to indexation (http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-19467-f0.cfm).
As of this month, the annual uprating of occupational pensions, benefits and tax credits will take place in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) measure of inflation rather than the Retail Price Index (RPI). The CPI tends to rise more slowly than the RPI both because of the composition of the "index" (what's included and what isn't) and because of the method of calculation.
The impact on my pension (to take a personal example for once) is that it's now worth between 15 and 20% less over the course of my lifetime than it would have been had this change not been made.
In an unprecedented attack upon workers, even the previously accrued value of past service has been reduced, stealing from us what we thought we already had as well as reducing the value of what we have yet to earn.
Still, you might think, it's not a shock that Tories rob workers (nor that Lib Dems help them) - but at least Chancellor Osborne is a consistent advocate of the CPI as a measure of inflation.
Only he isn't.
Student loan repayment rates will continue to rise with the faster rising RPI rather than the CPI.
The only thing that's consistent about this Government of hypocrites is a consistent desire to do down working people.
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