Triple Lock on Pensions

I believe that everyone deserves financial security in retirement and that the cornerstone of that is a decent State Pension which retains its value for future generations of pensioners.

The Government made a manifesto commitment in 2019 to maintain the triple lock which would have seen the State Pension rise by inflation during every year of the current Parliament. However, on 7 September 2021, the then Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced she would not apply the triple lock for the financial year 2022/23 because average earnings rose by 8% in the financial year 2021/22. She argued that this was a “statistical anomaly” created by the large number of people who saw their earnings fall during lockdown. The State Pension therefore increased by 3.1% for the current financial year.

At the time, I called for Ministers to be fully transparent about the reasons for suspending the triple lock by publishing the documents they had relied upon when coming to their decision. Unfortunately, this did not happen. The public deserve to know what options are being considered going forward with reports that Ministers may again disapply the triple lock in future years of this Parliament as part of the fallout from September’s mini-Budget. If this does happen, it would be yet another breach of the Government's 2019 manifesto commitment.

I am committed to a pension system that is sustainable, sufficient and able to meet the challenges of an ageing population. I believe we all have an interest in ensuring that the State Pension allows older people to live in dignity.