Inflation is now over 5%.

Some occupational pension schemes, while index linked, are capped by

inflation or 5% whichever is the lower

Some are

inflation or 3% whichever is the lower

So if inflation is above the relevant threshold, pension income will not keep up with inflation.

State pensions might get the whole inflation rate increase, but as things stand, the huge rise in energy charges from yesterday will only result in a pension increase added in April 2023 along with the rise from October 2021 as the inflation rate in September is what counts for the next April, so a seventeen month delay.

Also, I am not sure about this, but I seem to remember from somewhere that energy costs are not that high a percentage part of the basket of goods and services used to calculate inflation as compared with the percentage part of a poorer person's income that needs to be spent on energy.

And it looks like the price of energy for home use may rise a lot in October 2022 as well, and that based on wholesale prices now, but the cap for October is calculated on figures of some sort of which i am not sure from March to August or something like that and it is now April.

Will people cut back on things, so that their grocery bill increases less than inflation by, for example, going for supermarket own label versions rather than branded versions?

William