Lady Hermon – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Defence

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lady Hermon on 2016-05-04.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reasons there has been no increase in the war disablement pension for 2016-17; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Julian Brazier

War Pensions are uprated to ensure that they reflect any increases in the cost of living. The approach taken by successive governments is that by increasing awards with reference to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), we ensure consistency with the measure of inflation used by the Bank of England.

The level of any annual increase is set against the September CPI figure. In September 2015 CPI was negative. Consequently, for financial year 2016/17 War Pensions have been maintained at previous levels. War Pensions will increase when the annual CPI figure next increases.