Retail Prices Index

BT will not be able to swap the index used to uprate part of its pension scheme after the Supreme Court denied permission to appeal, closing all legal avenues.

Philip Hammond's Spring Statement was empty of any direct pension news as the Treasury sought to avoid major policy announcements.

The Interserve Pension Scheme has recognised a £70.6m reduction in liabilities after swapping the index used to uprate benefits.

The UK Statistics Authority's (UKSA) "refusal" to fix a long-standing error in the retail prices index (RPI) is "untenable" and demonstrates a need to commit to one measure of inflation.

BT has lost a Court of Appeal attempt to swap one section of its defined benefit (DB) pension schemes from the Retail Prices Index (RPI) to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI).

The government will gradually adopt a version of the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) which incorporates housing costs for pension funds and index-linked gilts, it confirmed today.

Granting statutory protection to pre-1997 benefits in defined benefit (DB) schemes would be an unfair cost to sponsors and would force even more closures, according to this weeks' Pensions Buzz respondents.

The Treasury select committee has told the government it must stop using the Retail Prices Index (RPI) for "any indexation purpose where legally possible".

BT has been barred from swapping the indexation of the third section of the BT Pension Scheme (BTPS).

BT is seeking to switch indexation for the final section of its scheme in order to stem a ballooning deficit.