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It suggested the cost of a minimum retirement living standard for a one-person household has decreased by £1,000 a year to £13,400.

The Department for Work and Pensions at Westminster currently defines it based on the living standard an average income could buy in the year ending in March 2011.

"We are very much telling this story that it has to be about independence or not independence. But there's all of this story that is in between, that people want independence, but not at any cost. There's a living standard that has to be maintained. There's trade that has to be maintained. There are living ways that have to be maintained."

If you get a salary increase this year that just about keeps pace with rising prices, your living standard is exactly the same, even though your paycheque is bigger.

UAW leadership is demanding living standard improvements, the elimination of the two-tiered employment system as well as a historic 40% wage increase.