Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will made of an assessment of the potential merits of working with the Office for National Statistics to use their experimental analysis articles on the different levels and impacts of inflation between the highest and lowest disposable income households to help decide (a) working age and (b) non-working age benefit payments.

Successive Governments since 1987 have used the relevant price index for the year to September in the conduct of the statutory annual review of State Pension and benefit rates. The Secretary of State currently uses the Consumer Prices Index for this purpose. At the present time there are no plans to change this approach.