§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has made of the impact on those families in receipt of social security benefits of removing alcoholic drink and tobacco from the retail price index.
§ Sir George YoungSocial security benefits are uprated annually by reference to the expected movement of the general index of retail prices (RPI) since the previous uprating. Thus any change in the basis of the RPI would affect upratings.
Between November 1977 and November 1979, the RPI rise by 26.8 per cent., the index for alcoholic drink by 23.6 per cent. and the index for tobacco by 22.6 per cent. Without alcohol and tobacco, the RPI would have risen over the two years to 27.4 per cent. The future effect of removing alcoholic drink and tobacco from the RPI would depend on the future movements in the prices of these commodities 318W relative to the other commodities in the RPI.