State pension triple lock

Almost 3 million former UK public sector workers will be £2000 better off next year thanks to taxpayer-backed inflation protection in both their work and ...

Downing Street has defended reinstating the triple lock on pensions while insisting that public sector workers receiving pay rises in line with inflation ...

However, Downing Street insisted that "chasing inflation" with pay rises for public sector workers was not "feasible" as it would further fuel inflationary pressures. "The measures we've introduced on cost of living, those who benefit most will be those who are hardest hit. Retirees are set to see double-digit payments increases next year as the state pension will be determined based on September's CPI inflation.

Under the triple-lock, that would have meant an equal pension rise that the government couldn't sustain after providing financial support throughout the ...

The pensions triple-lock was introduced in 2010, to ensure payments rise each year keeping up with the cost of living. Wages, for the moment, will not. When the scheme ended, they went back to paying them full wage.

Former Pensions Minister Ros Altman says pensioners deserve their rise after the Government betrayed its 'triple lock' promise and gave them a 3.1% increase ...

- This is Money's podcast Pensioners were betrayed this year when the triple lock on state pension increases was suspended. - This is Money's newsletter CPI inflation is around 9.1 per cent and might go higher. - The best credit cards - The best savings rates

The exact rate at which benefits and the state pension increase will depend on the rate of CPI in September. Each year, benefits and pensions typically rise in ...

However, the government is opposing pay rises in line with inflation. The triple lock commits the government to increasing state pensions by whichever is highest out of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent. Benefits are set to rise by around 10 per cent next year, it's been announced.

Sunak's attempt to make a distinction between increases in pensions and wages fuels a sense of political favouritism.

And one detail in the final legislation, due to be unveiled next month, is definitely essential: clarity on when the levy will end. It takes the highest of three readings – the rate of inflation for the previous September, earnings growth for the previous July, or 2.5% – and applies it to the April upgrade in the state pension. As the Institute of Economic Affairs points out, “pensioners as a group are less likely to be in poverty than, say, families with young children.” Jim O’Neill, former Treasury minister in the later Cameron government, this week called it “crazy” to protect pensioner incomes fully against inflation while younger people’s wages are being eroded at the fastest rate for 40 years. It is also true, as campaigners say, that the UK’s state pension (currently £9,500 a year) is not generous by the standards of rich European countries. The government has got itself into a fine muddle on the triple lock pension guarantee, David Cameron’s gift-cum-bribe to older voters in 2010 that has ricocheted down the years.