Percentage cost of living raise and national average contributory pension for UK and West Midlands

You asked

I would like:

1) Is it possible to provide the percentage cost of living increase?

2020 vs 2019 (if available)

2019 vs 2018

2018 vs 2017 and

2017 vs 2016?

2) Is it possible to provide the percentage figure for the national average contributory pension contribution (made by employers) in for the:

UK and West Midlands (regional data)?

We said

Thank you for your request.

Please find our response to your question.

1) We publish various measures of inflation but the one that is generally picked up on news bulletins is based on the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). This is the measure that meets international standards and is used by HM Treasury and the Bank of England in setting monetary policy. The CPI inflation rates for the latest four calendar years are:

Inflation information is released and analysed in a summary statistical bulletin each month with more detailed information included in a set of reference tables. The CPI rates for calendar years can be found in table 20b. The bulletin and tables are updated on a monthly basis but can be found using the same links each month.

There are two other measures of inflation which are sometimes reported: the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupied housing costs and the Retail Prices Index. The former is our headline measure of inflation and is the same as the Consumer Prices Index but with the costs associated with owning, maintaining and living in your home added. The latter is a legacy measure of inflation which we continue to publish because it is used in contracts but which does not meet the high standards needed to be designated a National Statistic, our badge of statistical quality. Annual rates for both of these are also included in the reference tables, in tables 6b and 37 respectively. Summary information on the three measures is included in section 7 of the bulletin.

2) The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) is a survey of employers and based on information gathered from a sample of 1% of employees in the UK.

The ASHE is an important source of information on workplace pensions in the UK, collecting information on all types of workplace pension: occupational pension schemes, group personal pensions (GPPs) and group stakeholder pensions (GSPs). ASHE collects information on employee membership of the current employer's workplace pension scheme. This does not include preserved rights in any former employer's pension scheme or pensions paid by former employers.

The ASHE also collects information on workplace pension contribution rates. Employee and employer contribution rate bands are shown by sector and pension type. Contribution rates are also available by age, occupation, industry and employer size in the datasets (tables P5 to P12) with the latest data available covering the UK for the 2019 period.

Additional to these tables we also have produced ad-hoc analysis:

This link shows employees with workplace pensions: median employee, employer and total (employer plus employee) contribution rates by type of pension. This table shows that the median employer contribution rate for employees in the UK in 2019 was:

• 16.5% - occupational defined benefit

• 3.0% - occupational defined contribution

• 4.5% - group personal or stakeholder pension

We have not produced estimates of median employer contribution rates for all pension types and we have not produced any analysis of this kind at regional level.

We can produce an ad-hoc estimate but this would be subject to the ONS charging policy. If you would be interested in having us produce this, we can be contacted at pensionsanalysis@ons.gov.uk.