Government may link social welfare and state pensions to a cost of living indicator

Indexation, which is currently ‘under active consideration’, would involve the benchmarking of core welfare and state pension rates to a cost of living indicator, such as the Consumer Price Index

The move to index core welfare rates and the state pension to CPI is under ‘active consideration’, according to one government source

The government is actively examining the indexation of social welfare payments and the state pension in a move that would remove the power to increase them from the political discretion of governments.

Indexation would involve the benchmarking of core welfare and state pension rates to a cost of living indicator, such as the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or average wage growth, meaning rates would automatically rise and fall in line with this index.

During the ...