By 
Hundreds of thousands of savers will earn less on renewed National Savings & Investments (NS&I) deals from Wednesday as the institution moves to using a different measure of inflation.
NS&I’s Index-linked Savings Certificates are a form of two, three or five-year bond designed to pay inflation-beating returns.
They are no longer on sale to new customers but existing savers who already own the certificates, worth £20bn in total, can renew them.
The current interest rate is 0.01 of a percentage point above inflation. NS&I uses the retail prices index (RPI) rate of inflation, 2.5pc, meaning deals renewed now pay 2.51pc.
But for index-linked certificates renewed after May 1, NS&I will move to the consumer prices index (CPI), currently 1.9pc.
An NS&I spokesman said the decision reflected a broader government move away from RPI.
The Treasury-backed institution said changing from RPI to CPI would save taxpayers £610m over the next five years.
Jillian Jones, 65, has more than £10,000 invested in the certificates and said many elderly people would be unaware of the changes, despite an NS&I campaign to contact its customers.
Mrs Jones said: “I think OAPs are not going to know about this unless they are really clued up.”
May 1 will also see NS&I remove the easy-access element of its guaranteed growth and income bonds.
Guaranteed growth bonds are traditional bonds that return the initial investment, plus interest, at the end of a fixed term.
The one-year version pays 1.5pc and the three-year pays 1.95pc.
Guaranteed income bonds pay returns every month. The one-year deal pays 1.45pc, and the three-year 1.9pc.
Currently, these bonds allow customers to take cash out any time, with a penalty of 90 days’ interest.
But from Wednesday there will only be a 30-day cooling off period after purchase, during which customers can change their minds.
After that, their money is locked away and cannot be taken out until the bond’s term ends.
Thousands of people have signed Telegraph Money’s petition to reverse the changes to NS&I’s certificates. Add your name here.
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