But it said that while its calculation was flawed, the central message that paying the pension to more people, without increasing overall spending, would logically require the value of each individual pension to be reduced.
ESS president Deputy Tina Bury said the miscalculation was an honest mistake.
‘We received a range of questions from the Guernsey Press yesterday around the fund that pays for the States pension scheme. We were keen to respond quickly given the surrounding online commentary, and unfortunately in doing so a statistical error was included in our response,’ she said.
‘We said there was a predicted increase of 11% in pensioners during the next three years.
‘This figure both did not account for the increase in pension age during the next three years, and related to the incorrect time period. It should have been an increase of approximately 4%, about 700 claimants, in the next three years. I apologise for the error.
‘However, the main thrust of our response to the amendment remains, in that it would affect a number of benefits which we expect to increase above inflation due to demand.
‘The simple fact is, if we have to pay more people with the same amount of money, the only way to do this is to pay each person less.’
You need to be logged in to comment.