§ Dr. CableTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what work has been carried out by the Office for National Statistics to construct a retail prices index reflecting a representative basket of goods and services used by(a) pensioners and (b) recipients of income support; and how such an index would differ from the overall index. [118036]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
163WLetter from John Kidgell to Dr. Vincent Cable, dated 12 April 2000:
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your recent question on work carried out by the ONS on a retail price index reflecting goods and services used by pensioners and recipients of income support. I am replying in the Director's absence.Each quarter the ONS publishes in the Consumer Price Indices Business Monitor (MM23) separate indices for one and two pensioner households, using weights derived from relevant expenditure information from the Family Expenditure Survey (FES). These indices exclude a number of items in the Retail Prices Index (RPI), including charges for NHS services, all housing costs and staff restaurant meals. NHS charges are excluded because they are generally not paid by pensioners, and housing costs are excluded because pensioners are mostly cushioned from rises by the receipt of rebates. Pensioners do not have staff restaurant meals. For rail and bus fares, special pensioners rail and bus fare indices are substituted for the normal index household indices to allow for fare concessions available in some areas.Between January 1987, the latest reference period for the RPI, and the fourth quarter of 1999, the RPI increased by 66.8%. In the same period, the one-person pensioner household index increased by 50.1% and the two-person pensioner household index increased by 54.9%.The ONS does not construct a separate index for recipients of income support, but does construct the Rossi index each month. This is used for uprating state income-related benefits once a year. The Rossi index is the all items RPI excluding mortgage interest payments, rent, council tax and owner-occupiers' depreciation costs. This is not published, but is made available on request to the ONS.Between January 1987 and December 1999, the RPI increased by 67.3%. In the same period, the Rossi index increased by 61.8%.