It’s time to scrap the triple lock

For a government to break a manifesto commitment is a serious matter which, quite rightly, is sure to rebound at the ballot box. But there is one commitment in the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto which has simply got to go: the promise to maintain the ‘triple lock’ on pensions which sees the basic state pension increased each year by either inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest. 

At the time the party made this promise it could not have foreseen the peculiar circumstances which would result in today’s remarkable ONS figures showing that average earnings are up over the past 12 months by 8.8 per cent. Unless next month’s figure falls appreciably, which is unlikely, pensioners can look forward to a huge boost next April – as the government uses September’s average earnings figure to determine the rise in the state pension seven months’ later. Taxpayers, by implication, face a huge hit.