Reader’s Question – 2011 State Second Pension (formerly SERPS) increase

1 min read Published: 21 Oct 2010
Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Question:

Dear Money to the Masses,

Please can you advise if the April 2011 state pension increase will include the Serps & Garduated segments

My answer:

The simple answer is that the coalition government stated in their emergency budget that from April 2011 these benefits would be increased in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Which based on September’s annual CPI figure is 3.1%.

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  1. In response to a similar question to the Pensions Advisory Service, I received an email from them on December 11 which may elicit some debate and raise a few eyebrows. Here are the contents of this email:

    “I refer to your enquiry sent on 29 October 2010 and apologise for the
    delay in responding.

    Increases to state pension are generic and apply to each of the
    benefits, so I can advise that you were given the correct information.

    What occured earlier this year is that the increase to be applied was
    based on a September to September Retail Prices Index change which was a negative figure, which in fact would have reduced your state pension entitlement.

    Instead the government decided not to apply any reduction and froze the level of state pension but applied a discretionary increase to the basic state pension of 2.5%.

    The government yesterday confirmed that the increase next April will be the Retail Prices Index which for the previous September to September was 4.6% and should be applied to all the splits.”

    I have not received an email correcting the above and therefore assume that the Pensions Advisory Service’s advice is accurate,`as indeed it should be.

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