News in brief... paying for the triple lock

⬤ Government promises to maintain the “triple lock” state pension guarantee are unsustainable according to a study from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The influential think tank says that the policy – which sees state pensions increase each year by the higher of 2.5%, average earnings growth or inflation – will eat up a larger and larger proportion of national income over time.

Many workers paying for the policy through their taxes today are unlikely to benefit from it by the time they get to retirement.

⬤ The number of complaints about employers failing to make pension contributions on behalf of employees rose by nearly 30% last year, according to new figures from the Pensions Ombudsman, published in the Financial Times. They reveal a worrying increase in the number of employers that are illegally failing to pay into their staff pension schemes. Complaints disproportionately involve smaller businesses, prompting concern that regulators are struggling to police a system that requires millions of employers, no matter what their size, to fund staff pensions properly.

⬤ High earning, middle-aged men will pay more in National Insurance than they’ll ever get back in state pension, according to a new analysis by the Pensions Policy Institute. Its study shows that a 40-yearold man in the top 10% of earners is likely to pay around £250,000 in National Insurance contributions during his lifetime. However, he is likely to get only £248,000 in state pension income back, assuming he lives to age 90.