Where am I? 
Home Pensions - Retail
Categories: Pensions - Retail
Topics: | CPI| RPI| Labour| conservatives
Labour MPs yesterday accused the coalition government of 'short changing' the armed forces by indexing their pensions to CPI rather than RPI.
Public service pensions, including those of servicemen and women, are to be indexed using CPI rather than the traditionally higher measure of RPI from April this year.
In response to questions from Labour MP for Delyn David Hanson, Andrew Robathan, parliamentary under secretary of state for defence personnel, welfare and veterans said: "CPI is deemed more appropriate than the retail prices index because the Bank of England uses it to measure inflation and it is an internationally standard measure.
"We understand the concerns that have been raised about this matter, but such is the scale of the economic problems that we inherited that no part of society, not even the armed forces, can be fully exempt from the need to find ways to reduce the budget deficit."
Hanson said changing to CPI will be "difficult for service personnel who are retiring early because of grievous injuries caused in conflicts" and accused the government of ‘short changing' the armed services.
Labour MP Jim Murphy said there is "increasing anger" about the policy and claimed the move to CPI "could cost a young Afghan war widow £750,000 in payments".
He claimed the change is "not about deficit reduction" and demanded to know the reaction of the armed forces' families.
Robathan said he shared the anger that "we are faced with a financial situation that is damaging this country and our armed forces".
| Share | |
| Comment | Labour accuses govt of ‘short changing’ armed forces on pensions |
More pensions - retail news
Email alerts
Recommended reading
Categories
Topics
Comments
Pots and kettles
Perhaps Labour MP Jim Murphy would do well to consider that there wouldn't be a young widow from the Afghan conflict to be affected by changes to CPI had it not been for his party taking us to war on lies...that no-one has been tried and convicted of to date... but Labour MPs hands still drip the fresh blood of our brave service men and women if we want to read emotionally charged challenges from the pary that took us to the financial brink and then acclerated over it........................ The coalition now has hard choices to make.. these will not be popular but again, it should be borne in mind that these are ambulance measures caused by the car crash that was the last Labour Government... and if we are talking about reducing peoples pension benefits let's talk about the action of Gordon Brown when he came to power over the dividend tax credits he "short changed ALL pensioners"..though most affected were those indirectly related Money Purchase schemes.. it did have a dramtic knock on effect to the value of funded pension funds... Labour MPs and Shadow ministers should hang their heads in shame... not point fingers.
Posted by: Rumplestiltskin
Related articles
Most Read
Audio / Visual
With the industry's biggest fund managers, IFAonline welcomes you to the media centre.
This year we have 14 awards designed to mark out the very best products in a highly competitive and innovative market. This includes three new awards for 2011 to reflect the developments in this rapidly growing market: Best Dual/Multi-Index Product, Best Structured (Oeic) Fund and Best Structured Product Provider.
Events
Poll
|
|
Job search
Ifaonlinejobs will open the right investment career path for you. Search hundreds of vacancies on www.ifaonlinejobs.co.uk now
In Focus
We all want certainty – and when it comes to auto-enrolment, advisers and their corporate...
Viewpoints
Clients now have a growing need for choice, flexibility and transparency when it comes to...
sponsored by
Robbers
I agree that everyone needs to do their part to reduce the deficit. This change is not a temporary measure and these pensioners will be paying for a deficit they did not cause for the rest of their life. There is simply no excuse for a government breaking a pension promise or for robbing pensioners. And the government wonders why people are reluctent to save for retirement. Could it be that they fear that their pension will be stolen or other benefits reduced to the extent that their pension becomes worthless.
Posted by: Mary