Triple lock was described as a ‘silly system’ by new pensions minister
State pension triple lock was described as ‘silly system’… by new pensions minister
by Half_A_
Triple lock was described as a ‘silly system’ by new pensions minister
State pension triple lock was described as ‘silly system’… by new pensions minister
by Half_A_
28 comments
Well it is.
Saying it out loud though puts it on the ever growing list of “sensible ideas with no regard for PR”!
Well, it is a silly system. It’s defined to increase at least as fast every year, and faster some years, than the wages that pay for it.
His idea about capping ISAs is not great though. Another policy that harms the middle class the most, and cements the position of the wealthiest.
He’s not wrong, it is making an already unaffordable pension system even less affordable. But who will have the courage to say state pensions shouldn’t exist?
> Bell said: “We’re not going to increase the state pension by 18 per cent next year. So the triple lock is going in its current form at least temporarily next year, unless [some MPs] are considering giving very generous increases to pensioners next year.
“However, I expect we will not be increasing it by nearly a fifth.”
> In 2021, the then Conservative government suspended the earnings element of the triple lock because it would have increased the state pension by 8 per cent.
He sounds very sensible. The triple lock, created as a temporary measure to lift pensioners out of relative poverty, has become a millstone around successive governments’ necks, and has been tinkered with before.
If Starmer is willing to take the political hit (and how much worse can his ratings get?) he should reform this.
Article is paywalled, but the triple lock has definitely served its purpose and the way we think about pensions should be revised.
Winter fuel payments are a drop in the ocean in comparison and, for the level of grief Labour received in response, they may as well have gone for full pension reform anyway.
People talk about growth, but our entire economy is held hostage by subsidising the ever growing pension aged demographic, essentially we have a Ponzi scheme in that we import numbers to sustain tax revenue to pay for the increasing cost of the state pension.
Until we address it then we’re going to continue on this unsustainable path of increasing debt and taxes to service the cost of debt and paying for the welfare state in its current form.
He’s correct. The question is will he have the cojones to do anything about it?
Maybe we could bring MP’s and Lord’s expenses in for close inspection.
The change in demographics is a big problem in lots of ways. Unfunded provisions like this are catching us out every which way.
Will someone not think of the boomers? They’ve been paying in their £10 a week for 40 years, why shouldn’t they be getting their pension raises that equate to a million pound pot for us today?
Should’ve scrapped it instead of the WFA because you’d have had just as many people crying about it but it would’ve made a lot more difference to the budget.
It is. If there is a triple lock on pensions then their really should be a triple lock on wages. But there isn’t
That means pensions get richer whilst workers do not. How do we expect those working, who are getting smaller and smaller wages…. Fund pensions… That are getting more and more expensive.
This isn’t even taking into account that as a whole… Pensioners are generally well off and have property that they bought cheap…. Whilst those working have very little assets
Hopefully young people begin to realise that the reason politicians cater so desperately to the needs of pensioners is not because they have some ideological commitment to them, but because they are reliable. If we went out to vote in the same way, politicians might also start caring about our needs.
We’re increasingly stuck with horrible systems and mandates that are weights around our neck because our politicians refuse to remove them, even when they realise them as ridiculous.
But politicians aren’t entirely to blame. Voters are far less forgiving and more fickle now. They want everything and no drawbacks. Thatcher engineered a massive economic recession through monetarism and won a landslide re-election in 1983. Would voters do the same now?
Torsten Bell is actually a very clever guy and I’d like to see him go further in Labour.
He was CEO of the Resolution Foundation whose stated aim ‘is to improve the standard of living of low-to-middle income families’. He is not a neo liberal in the Rachel Reeves style where it’s effectively a continuation of Tory policy. He’d rather see Labour help low income families. He’s bashing the triple lock because he knows it helps rich pensioners when there is very little help for poor working age people. It needs re-balancing.
Also got appointed as a SPAD to Alistair Darling during the financial crisis and helped stabilise the economy.
But it won a pile of votes. Was it ever meant to do anything other than that?
It is silly.
The nature of the triple lock means it will inevitably overtake minimum wage if it isn’t scrapped.
It is, by its very nature, not sustainable long term. The only question is when it will be scrapped.
Most of us are never likely to retire now, pension age is 68! Why the hell should we pay existing pensioners even more for a privilege we will never enjoy.
State pension needs to be means tested and stripped from wealthy pensioners.
Given it’s one of the worst policies not just in British history but in the history of global politics I think calling it a little silly is an understatement.
I’d vote for any party than pledged to scrap it.
I’m sure they’ll introduced a phased scrapping of it, just in time to come into force when millennials reach retirement age. Hooray.
Almost like pensioners are the ones bleeding the country dry. (And no, you in fact DIDN’T pay your way into it, in fact you voted for politicians that would sacrifice the working population to keep your benefits.)
He’s right though, I’m sick of my stagnant wages being taxed higher and higher to prop up a generation with ( general speaking) more wealth than will ever get a sniff of!
Its not silly, its downright fiscally irresponsible. Reform triple lock already!
Pensioners shouldn’t be getting greater increases in income than workers wages, it’s simply not sustainable
it is but telling that to the old and uneducated is political suicide
I listened to this guys book. He seems to know his shit. And he’s right on this.
Hopefully Starmer and Reeves have the courage to scrap it and tie it only to inflation like other benefits are.
Triple lock has gone from lifting pensioners out of poverty, to keeping the younger generations poor. It is not fit for purpose.
If pensioners are low on cash, they can sell thier houses and downsize.
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