Furious campaigners have blasted the Conservatives and Labour for refusing to give a cast iron guarantee the pensions triple lock will be protected beyond the general election. The Liberal Democrats have already confirmed they will protect the lock, which ensures pensions rise in line with inflation, wages or 2.5 percent - whichever is highest, in the next parliament.
But campaigners said it was “disappointing” neither of the two major political parties had done so yet. Jeremy Hunt confirmed the benefit would be honoured for another year with the state pension set to increase by 8.5 per cent, in last month’s Autumn statement.
This means it will remain in place until April 2025. The Chancellor’s commitment came after a relentless crusade by this newspaper, the SilverVoices campaign group and the backing of almost 280,000 people.
The Treasury had been considering diluting the formula to try and save £900. But when asked if he would honour it in the next Tory election manifesto Rishi Sunak dodged giving a firm commitment.
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Speaking while travelling to the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, Mr Sunak said he was “not going to start writing the manifesto on the plane, as fun as that would be.” He added: “We are the government that has introduced the triple lock and delivered the triple lock and it is why, right now, pensions are, depending on how you look at it, £800 or £900 bigger than they otherwise would have been.
“And we consistently support pensioners. Just this winter pensioners will receive up to an extra £300, alongside their winter fuel payment, to help with energy bills because they are particularly vulnerable to cold weather for obvious reasons, so it is right they get that extra support.
“We have also just delivered the triple lock in full for this coming year which the Chancellor announced in the Autumn statement. There was some scepticism that that might not happen but again it is just a signal of our commitment to look after our pensioners who have put a lot into our country, we owe them a lot and under this government, we have consistently shown we will support them and back them.”
Sir Keir Starmer, who was also attending the gathering in the United Arab Emirates, said: “This government made the commitment on the triple lock and it's for this government to keep to its commitment. We will set out our position as we get to the election, there is obviously at least one more fiscal event to be had yet, but we will set that out fully before we get to the election.”
A Labour source pointed out the party always has had a “strong commitment to pensioners and always will do.”
Dennis Reed, director of SilverVoices, said: “I'm extremely disappointed that neither major party, after all the fuss we've had this year to get the triple lock maintained in full, is yet prepared to commit itself to include the chocolate in their manifesto for the next election. I think that one of the parties should take a step now and say quite clearly that the triple lock is going to be included in our manifesto and that will give them a good head start among older voters.”
He added: “I don't think it's good enough that Labour is saying that the Tories made this promise and they've got to stick to it. Well, they have stuck to it, but what's Labour going to do?”
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2023-12-03 22:01:00Z
CBMiXmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV4cHJlc3MuY28udWsvbmV3cy9wb2xpdGljcy8xODQxNjI3L1N0YXRlLXBlbnNpb24tdHJpcGxlLWxvY2stY2FtcGFpZ24tUmlzaGktU3VuYWvSAWJodHRwczovL3d3dy5leHByZXNzLmNvLnVrL25ld3MvcG9saXRpY3MvMTg0MTYyNy9TdGF0ZS1wZW5zaW9uLXRyaXBsZS1sb2NrLWNhbXBhaWduLVJpc2hpLVN1bmFrL2FtcA
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