CPI

UK - Benign markets and the shift from RPI to CPI reduced defined benefit deficits from £144bn ($234bn) to £64bn over the past year, Pension Capital Strategies research shows.

As many as 200 pensioners will gather at Parliament today to protest the government's plan to switch to the Consumer Prices Index for pensions increases.

Ford workers are threatening a national strike over plans to uprate future payments for Ford Pension Fund members by the Consumer Prices Index.

Occupational scheme member groups have attacked the switch to Consumer Prices Index inflation as a Treasury cost-saving exercise aimed at benefitting business over members.

The ‘small print lottery' over RPI/CPI usage in company pension schemes means some pensioners will see their income reduced by 20% over 20 years, KPMG says.

MPs have been urged to vote down government plans which would reduce the value of pensions year on year in a crucial House of Commons vote today.

Switching to consumer price index for pension inflation will improve defined benefit scheme funding levels by £83bn - but reduce the value of members' pensions, the government says.

UK - The UK inflation rate rose to 4% in January, which is double the government's target and up from 3.7% the previous month.

Global inflation will erode defined benefit deficits substantially but savers will have to accept they will be far worse off, Lindsay Tomlinson warns.

Scheme managers are split over whether the government should have given pension funds the power to override scheme rules enabling a shift from RPI to CPI indexation where it is not already allowed.