Ditching the triple lock would be ‘unforgivable’
Ditching the triple lock would be “unforgivable”, a former pensions minister has warned after Downing Street said the commitment could be abandoned yesterday.
Baroness Ros Altmann said she was “absolutely stunned” following the announcement that pensions could rise in line with earnings instead of inflation next year.
“We have to be careful that we don’t just try and short change the elderly two years in a row in the middle of a cost of living crisis, that is unforgivable in my view,” she told BBC’s Radio 4’s Today programme.
The promise to commit to the triple lock, which states that state pensions will rise by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent, was contained in the 2019 Conservative election manifesto.
However, the Government is now considering ditching the promise to increase pensions in line with inflation due to the squeeze on the public finances in the wake of the mini-budget fiasco.
Under the new plans, experts are warning that pensioners could miss out on £8.50 per week or £442 per year in income.
Jeremy Hunt will now decide whether the triple lock – which was confirmed as recently as October 2 by the Prime Minister – will be kept later this month.
Baroness Altmann said: “We cannot move forward cutting state pensions, telling pensioners one minute we are promising to protect them in the middle of a cost of living crisis then we put that all at risk.
“There are millions of people in this country, frail, elderly people…who have little or nothing other than the state pension to live on.”
She added that these people are “extraordinarily worried now” as the promises made to them by the Government are “potentially going to be torn up”.
Campaigners similarly warned that failing to keep pensions in line with rising prices would be “devastating” and a “flagrant breach of trust”.
In response to the announcement of September’s inflation figures this morning, Chancellor Mr Hunt did not refer to the pensions promise but instead said help would be targeted at the most vulnerable.
Liz Truss, who is battling to save her premiership after the mini-budget and the subsequent U-turns, would face a potentially fatal revolt from Tory backbenchers if she sought to ditch the promise.
