UNISON has welcomed the decision by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) not to change the way that the retail price index (RPI) is calculated.
After a three-month consultation, the ONS has decided not to bring the RPI more into line with the slower-rising consumer price Index (CPI).
Instead, a new additional index of inflation, the RPIJ, will be created. But RPI will continue to be used for the uprating of private-sector pensions and index-linked bonds.
UNISON policy officer Sampson Low said: “We welcome the decision, as the proposals could have reduced RPI by about 0.9 percentage points a year.
“We said in our submission to the ONS that this could mean that changes in the true cost of living by our members were not being properly reflected.
“It may have also made pay bargaining harder for negotiators,” he added. “Pensioners who still have an RPI link for their annual pension scheme uprating will be particularly pleased that ONS have decided not to tamper with it.”