Just comparing my state pension increase to my electricity price increase - 3.1% to 300% and earnings level increases of 8.8% plus actual CPI increase to February 2022 of almost 6%. So I just wondered when the tories reneged on their triple lock retention vow to pensioners at the last election.
I looked up the site and came up with this:
this is what they still say :
"Annual increases
The basic State Pension increases every year by whichever is the highest of the following:
**earnings - the average percentage growth in wages (in Great Britain)**
prices - the percentage growth in prices in the UK as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)
2.5%
"
It seems they can’t even admit what they have done.
“It’s not happening even while it’s happening”
So the Tories were not satisfied with changing increases from RPI to CPI ( under the CONLIB regime) , and then imposing wholly unnecessary economic suicide on the country due to the fauxpandemic. Leading to massive energy price hikes and numerous bankrupt energy suppliers ( which of course they now blame on Russia when it was a Ukraine problem of our own making on top of an insane covid reaction ). They now grind the remaining OAPs ( after the jab debacle has thinned their ranks )further into poverty by cutting away their legs with the usual inflationary mishandling which always hits the poorest with essentially fixed incomes. And they forget to change the mood music on their website so no-one can understand what they’ve done.
Of course that doesn’t quite translate if the way of averaging is amended at frequent intervals, and/or changes to the CPI comparator “basket”.
e.g if 49 people have an income of £50000 pa while 50 have £5000 then the median is £5000 while the mean is £27273. They’re both validly used as averages in certain contexts.
But cheer up: in the USA the economy is absolutely booming, Joe Biden muttered the other day, maybe we could all charter a plane there. A bit of indecipherable gabble and some blue and yellow stickers and a lovely tent on Skid Row is ours for the taking.
If the median and mean increased over the year would the percentage increase of both differ, as this would be the crucial question. If all incomes increased by 10% then the mean would jump by 10% from 5000 to 5500 but the median would also change by 10% from 27273 to 30000 - so either way the appropriate % would be 10%.
If the 50,000 incomes all jumped 15% but the 5000 incomes only jumped 10% the mean would still be a 10% increase to 5500 but the median would jump from 27273 to 31818 a 16.67% increase!
But if the 50 000 incomes only increased by 5% and the 5000s increased by 10% then the mean increase remains at 10% but the median increase would only be 4.96%.
…. if my maths are up to scratch?
An uneven increase in incomes with a greater % increase for the wealthier is the best bet.
Could the Guv bean counters switch from median to mean in different years, I guess anything is possible!