§ Dr. CableTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many public sector pensioners are paid index-linked pensions; what the annual payouts to them were in each year since 1997; and what the payouts would have been if the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices index had been applied. [142289]
§ Mr. BoatengAll public service pensions are increased annually in line with the retail prices index (RPI) directly under, or by analogy to, provisions of the Pensions (Increase) Act 1971 and section 59 of the Social Security Pensions Act 1975. In addition a number other schemes in the wider public sector may opt to provide full RPI, but no information is held centrally on these schemes.
There are approximately 3.3 million pensions in payment to members of public service pension schemes or their dependants. Expenditure on public service pensions was about £20 billion in 2002–03.
Expenditure for previous years can be found in the schemes' published resource and appropriation accounts. There are no plans to change the indexation of public service pensions from the RPI to the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP) and no analysis has been carried out on what the costs and benefits would be of doing so.