Basic State Pension as a percentage of average earnings
Sources: Figures assume that Basic State Pension rises in line with average
earnings from April 2012 and that average earnings grow by 2% above inflation each year until then. Input data taken from
IFS Fiscal Facts and from
DWP Abstract of Statistics 2005.
Projections of Government spending on pensioner benefits as % of GDP
Source:Pensions
Bill Regulatory Impact Assessment, figure A7. For each year, the purple bar on the left shows projected
costs of pensioner benefits under existing legislation, assuming that the guarantee credit rises in line with prices. The blue
bar in the middle projects costs under existing legislation, but assumes that the guarantee credit rises in line with earnings
every year (the Government has had an aspiration to do this over the long term since 1998, but this only became a formal
commitment in 2006). The shaded bar on the right includes all other reforms, e.g., linking the Basic State Pension to earnings,
raising the State Pension Age, overhauling qualifying conditions and flattening S2P accruals.