The UK government has recently revealed that more than 15 million pensioners and millions of other people claiming benefits from the UK welfare state will soon have their payments reduced in real terms. The government has decided to change the historic measurement index of the retail prices index, which currently stands at 4.6%, in favour of the consumer prices index which currently stands at a lower 3.1%. While this may seem fairly irrelevant in the short to medium term, the net impact of this change in the future will save the UK government billions of pounds in benefit and pension payouts.

Where there is no doubt that the UK benefit system does need to be revamped and revisited there is confusion and conflict as to how these changes should be implemented. There is no right and no wrong answer to this particular problem but if benefits are reduced in real terms then of course people will be hit in the pocket. When you also take into account the fact that not only are benefit claimants at record levels in the UK, but over 50% of the workforce is directly or indirectly dependent upon the state, this is a heavy burden which the authorities cannot carry forward into the future.

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