§ Mr. Andrew Bowdenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has made an assessment of the cost of adjusting the pension of those civil servants who retired during the years 1976 to 1979 to a level comparable with the pension of civil servants who retired after 1979; if the Government have any plans for making such an adjustment; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrookeThe cost of uprating the pensions of civil servants who retired in the period 1976 to 1979, to a level comparable with the pension of civil servants who retired with the full benefits of the 1 April 1979 pay increase, would be about £8 million annually. But the incomes policy of those years applied generally, and it is not therefore a matter of adjusting the pensions only of civil servants. The cost of suitably uprating the pensions of all those in public service pension schemes who retired in the period has been assessed at £30 million annually.
These pensions are fully protected agaist price inflation. Moreover, the relationship between the value of 333W newly awarded pensions, calculated from earnings (pensionable pay), and that of pensions in payment, uprated in relation to prices, cannot remain constant. Taking account of the cost involved, and other demands on public expenditure, the Government have no plans to make an adjustment.