CONSUMER PRICES INDEX AND INCREASES IN BENEFITS

That this House welcomes the challenge from the Royal Statistical Society to the Government's assertion that the use from April 2011 of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) as the benchmark to raise benefits is fairer than the historic use of the Retail Prices Index; notes that the comments from the Royal Statistical Society follow the analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which branded the Budget regressive in hitting the poor more than the rich; and calls on the Government to reflect on whether it is fair to use the CPI on the most disadvantaged in society.