[andrewb]

Originally Posted by garinda

A rise in line with inflation, taking into account the years the allowance didn't go up, sounds fair enough to me.

Whatever the maths, we both know that the figure would be well below 49% and over 100% that the figures rose by, as for the last few years inflation has been relatively low.

The independent review is done by an independent body that recommended these increases. They conducted a survey to find out what the upper limit should be set at, as of course they recognised the seasonal changes in cost. A rise in line with inflation could well lead to a negative value, I don't believe they found that prices in this particular sector had gone down. I believe you will appreciate the lack of political bias, as these independent reviewers have no political axe to grind.