ANGER AT TRIPLE LOCK PENSION THREAT
RISHI Sunak has been urged not to hit pensions as angry campaigners fear for the triple lock.
The Chancellor’s staff are said to be looking at axing the pledge, to save £4billion.
That could cost pensioners £10 a week, sending “a ripple of fear” through hundreds of thousands already facing rising living costs in
the pandemic. They are in line for the bumper boost as the crisis is expected to skew the way any increase is calculated, following a sharp hike in average earnings.
But former pensions minister Sir Steve Webb said even a one-year squeeze on their income would be “totally unacceptable”.
Senior citizens groups claimed the state pension is one of the worst in the world and living costs climbed in the pandemic.
The extra £10 a week would add £4billion a year to Treasury bills. Officials are reported to be examining ways to suspend the triple lock pension guarantee for a year to escape the bill.
Treasury insiders said they “don’t recognise” the claims and added that the pensions pledge remains Government policy.
But Sir Steve said Mr Sunak will “undoubtedly be looking for alternatives to a big pension hike”. He added: “Even after a decade of the triple lock we still have one of the lowest state pensions in the developed world and it is still to reach an acceptable level.”
The triple lock promise guarantees that pensions rise annually by the highest out of three measures: average earnings growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent.
Average earnings went up by 5.6 per cent between February and April, as they are measured against the same period last year. Some analysts expect that to hit 8 per cent when the Government sets the pension rate in the autumn.
Officials insist it is too early to forecast the impact but Sir Steve said the Treasury may try to “fudge” the figure and average wage growth over two years.
The Chancellor said last week the Tory manifesto triple-lock guarantee remained Government policy even given Covid pressures.
He added: “I want to deliver what’s in the manifesto.
“It’s precisely because we want to deliver those promises that we’ve had to make some difficult decisions to get the public finances back on track.”
Government insiders yesterday insisted that remains the case.
But pensioners’ groups said a threat of payments being squeezed will send a “ripple of fear” through hundreds of thousands who are already struggling to make ends meet.
Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, said the loss of the free TV licence for over-75s and high energy prices plus rocketing food bills were hurting many senior citizens.
He continued: “Whenever we hear speculation about threats to the triple lock, it sends a ripple of fear through those hundreds of thousands of pensioners who are struggling to survive on the UK’s miserable state pension.
“Scrapping free TV licences, rising inflation, high energy and food prices represent a toxic mix for hard-up senior citizens.
“Nobody should be thinking of freezing the triple lock as we come out of the pandemic.
“The UK’s state pension is 33rd in value out of the 33 most developed countries in the world and I challenge the PM and Chancellor to survive for one day on what pensioners get in a
week.” Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, warned the Government that pensioner poverty is a growing problem.
She said: “Because of a statistical quirk, the triple lock has a bigger potential impact on the level of the state pension this year than usual but we do not think that the Government should rush to suspend it. After all, even with the triple lock the state pension would be worth considerably less than £10,000 a year – hardly a fortune in anyone’s terms – yet it forms the greatest part of most pensioners’ retirement income.
“Pensioner poverty has been rising in recent years and now tops two million, so an increase in the state pension this year could begin to claw back some of the financial ground that many older people have lost these last few years.”
Annabel James, of AgeSpace.org, urged the Government to protect the older generation after a hard year: “The UK has one of the lowest state pensions in the world which continues to be a major concern with our ageing population.
“The prediction for a very dramatic pension increase next year obviously puts pressure on the Government to consider a temporary suspension and find a shortterm way of protecting pensions whilst ensuring the economy can recover. However they must protect the elderly and their pensions for the future whilst adult social care remains such a shambles – highlighted by the pandemic.”
A Government spokesman said it was “committed to the pensions triple lock. There is still significant uncertainty around the trajectory of average earnings and whether there will be a spike as forecasted. Our focus is to ensure fairness for both pensioners and taxpayers.”
WE will never support debt and we are acutely aware of the massive sums of money the Treasury is pumping into the economy.
Of course we need to take measures to balance the books, but this is not the time to abandon the pledge to keep the so-called triple lock in place, whereby state pensions rise each year by whatever is highest between the annual inflation rate, wage growth or 2.5 per cent.
These last 18 months have taken a terrible toll on the elderly – many of whom have been cut off from friends and family for an unbearable amount of time.
They, like the NHS staff who were given a miserly 1 per cent pay rise, deserve to be treated with more respect.
Let’s not forget how the Conservative Party’s 2019 election campaign clearly promised that the current triple lock arrangements would be sacrosanct.
So we urge the Government to think very seriously about state pensions.
The old and frail need all the help they can get – and, in return, the Government needs to be able to count on the votes of pensioners when the time comes.