Wage growth in Northern Ireland has fallen below the rate of inflation for only the second time in the past year.
Surging petrol and diesel prices pushed Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation to 3.5% in September, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) confirmed on Wednesday.
It was the highest CPI rate since the 3.6% recorded in October last year.
The announcement came just one day after the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) put median monthly earnings in the north at £2,508 for September.
That left annual wage growth at 3.4% over the same period.
It’s only the second time in the past 12 months that the official rate of wage inflation in Northern Ireland has fallen behind UK CPI inflation.
However, despite the weaker wage growth in the north, pensioners are set to benefit from the triple lock, which will use the higher rate of UK wide wage growth to take the full state pension above £13,000 next year.
Under the triple lock mechanism, the state pension sees an annual rise in April in line with inflation, wages, or 2.5% – whichever is higher.
While the CPI increased to 3.5%, this does not beat the 3.9% wage growth figure that had already been published by the ONS.
This would put someone on the full new state pension on course to receive £250.70 per week from next April – up from £241.30 per week currently.
Someone on a full basic state pension would receive £192.10 per week, increasing from £184.90, reaching around £9,989 per year.
Many people do not receive the full state pension.
With the personal tax allowance frozen at £12,570, some pensioners are heading towards being caught within the tax net – with the annual new state pension poised to be pushed up to around £13,036 next year.
The Government has said pensioners who are wholly dependent on the new state pension – with no private pension – or the old “basic” pension, “with no increments” will not have to pay tax.
Further details are anticipated in next week’s Budget.
with wage growth across the UK rising at 3.9% over the year, pensioners in Northern Ireland are set to benefit.
Meanwhile, ONS said Prices across the transport industry were the biggest contributor to higher inflation last month, particularly at the pump.
Overall, motor fuels soared by 30% in the year to September, up from a 23% annual rise in August, ONS data showed.
The impact of surging fuel prices is likely to be more pronounced in Northern Ireland, where around two-thirds of households rely on home heating oil.
The price of home heating oil increased by around 27% between the start of August and end of September.