Suspension of the triple lock

lemongrove

Promises made at a time when the economy is doing well, and the population at large are doing well, is not the same when times change.In any case, as long as the state pension is a fair one, the better way now to do things is to give those on a lower income level more and those on higher ones a little less.
After Covid, times really have changed, and we must see that.

Isn’t our state pension one of the lowest in Europe? Is that a fair one? Have you tried living on @ £1,000 a month? If it happens can you throw a few shekels towards me please?

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

I, like 3.8 million other women expected our pensions at 60...I knew this from when I started work at 16...only when I was 58 and getting excited to retire in 2 years was I made aware of a further 6 gruelling years thanks to the government moving the goalposts without telling us. I could retire in September at 66 but I will have to continue working for a bit longer as I'm scared about managing on simply my state pension so I'm totally not surprised they've broken their promise. I'm tired, I want to slow down but I and thousands of other women only have the state pension to live on and I have no partner either...

Speaking for myself my husband and I rely on the triple lock, we live on the state pension with no pension credit as we are very slightly over the threshold. We were not in the fortunate position of being able to pay into a private pension as were on a low wage and needed every penny to survive in this expensive country. We are supposed to be a more well off country, but we are paid one of the lowest pensions in Europe. I think the politicians have no idea what it’s like to have little money.

Surely no one believed/believes that a conservative government would pay pensioners 8%. I certainly do not. They will do what they always do, look out for the rich and well heeled first -everyone else will have the leftovers if there are any.

Our pensions have been messed about with enough. Being a child of the 50's means having to wait until I'm 66 before I can get my state pension thanks to the government moving the goal posts. The unfairness of this to all us women who have lost out on 6 years or more pension is outrageous. Now they want to reverse turn on the triple lock. Bloody disgusting.

Exactly!

Leavesden

Speaking for myself my husband and I rely on the triple lock, we live on the state pension with no pension credit as we are very slightly over the threshold. We were not in the fortunate position of being able to pay into a private pension as were on a low wage and needed every penny to survive in this expensive country. We are supposed to be a more well off country, but we are paid one of the lowest pensions in Europe. I think the politicians have no idea what it’s like to have little money.

I don't understand how you can be very slightly over the threshold if you only have the Basic State Pension; it might be worth you applying. Too many people who are entitled to Pension Credit do not apply. Even if you don't get it there is other help for low income pensioners that might be worth looking at. NHS Low Income Scheme and Council Tax Support are a couple that come to mind.

It’s bad enough that I’ve been done out of 6 years state Pension!
The Government are now going to suspend the triple lock!
What have I and others actually contributed to all these years of working?
Seems really unfair to me.

I'm with Jillybird. My occupational pension contributions were taken directly from my salary, no choice given. In response to the earlier comment about the tax breaks I'd enjoyed because of that, I have rummage in my memory banks and can find none.

Like many others, I know people who've made feck all effort to save for their retirement, and get the full pensions and top ups that I don't. Annoying doesn't come close.

My mother bought her own house and saved hard for her pension while the woman she worked with (doing the same job, earning the same salary) rented her home and spent her money on smoking, bingo and various other entertainments. When they retired the smoking, gambling friend got her pension 'topped up' and a contibution to her rent, but mother had 'too much' in savings... where's the fairness in that?

There is no fairness. My grandmother (born 1912) had a similar experience. She and my grandfather lived very frugally so that they would be a bit more comfortable in their old age. They had lived through the days when means-testing meant someone coming to the house and telling people to sell the piano, or a treasured ornament before they could claim 'dole', and lived in fear of that sort of poverty. Their neighbour, Betty, didn't live the high life by any standards, but she and her husband would take package holidays abroad when they became available, would go out to dances, had a nice car and so on, and 'liked a drink'. My grandparents went to Weston Super Mare, and got the bus.

My grandparents were a bit sniffy about this, particularly when Betty would boast to my granny, and kept saying that they would regret it when they got old, as they would have no savings.

Long story short - when they all got old and went into sheltered housing, they (coincidentally) ended up with accommodation next door to one another. My grandparents paid rent on theirs and Betty got hers free. Both were 'given' what amounted to pocket money out of their pensions for toiletries etc.

My grandparents ended up with nothing to show for their years of thrift and saving, and felt humiliated and betrayed. I remember feeling how unjust this was as a child, and my feelings about means testing today are based on the memory of what I still see as an injustice.

I would suggest that instead of paying billions in foreign aid which is given to countries that don't need it like Indian and China that should change to a disaster fund only to be paid out in an actual disaster . Leave our pensions alone

Didn’t the government promise to put a cap on nursing home fees? Is anything happening about that?

If the government can waste 30bn+ on a track and trace system that doesn't work it can afford to give people a decent pension. My pension rise was just £4 per month for 2021. I have had to find other means of supplementing my pension by taking in a lodger.

My pension went up by about the same in April, in June my energy supplier put my monthly payment up by £10.00. I'm just thankful that I have a couple of months till winter to knit another jumper! 8% is not a windfall, it might just let me keep up with my living costs.

If they were going to suspend the triple lock the minute things got tight, why have it in the first place. Typical Tory tactic - strike at people who can’t hit back.

@MayBee70. They kicked it into the long grass didn’t they. Hancock appeared on BBC breakfast promising that they were having a meeting the following day to get the ball rolling on reforming social care. Boris then made a complete liar of him by cancelling the meeting and avoiding any questions about when they would keep their word and introduce caps. Tories are famous for punishing those who can’t fight back - disabled people, benefit claimants, pensioners. Why did anyone think anything had changed ?

CV2020

It’s bad enough that I’ve been done out of 6 years state Pension!
The Government are now going to suspend the triple lock!
What have I and others actually contributed to all these years of working?
Seems really unfair to me.

I do hope this complaint stops as you realise you will get further and further away from what people on the old SP are getting. The compound nature of the increases means you will be far better off - most extremely poor pensioners will be the very old.

The Labour Party would have done exactly the same to our pensions, the same as they admitted they too would have raised the age from 60 for women.

Doodledog

*My mother bought her own house and saved hard for her pension while the woman she worked with (doing the same job, earning the same salary) rented her home and spent her money on smoking, bingo and various other entertainments. When they retired the smoking, gambling friend got her pension 'topped up' and a contibution to her rent, but mother had 'too much' in savings... where's the fairness in that?*

There is no fairness. My grandmother (born 1912) had a similar experience. She and my grandfather lived very frugally so that they would be a bit more comfortable in their old age. They had lived through the days when means-testing meant someone coming to the house and telling people to sell the piano, or a treasured ornament before they could claim 'dole', and lived in fear of that sort of poverty. Their neighbour, Betty, didn't live the high life by any standards, but she and her husband would take package holidays abroad when they became available, would go out to dances, had a nice car and so on, and 'liked a drink'. My grandparents went to Weston Super Mare, and got the bus.

My grandparents were a bit sniffy about this, particularly when Betty would boast to my granny, and kept saying that they would regret it when they got old, as they would have no savings.

Long story short - when they all got old and went into sheltered housing, they (coincidentally) ended up with accommodation next door to one another. My grandparents paid rent on theirs and Betty got hers free. Both were 'given' what amounted to pocket money out of their pensions for toiletries etc.

My grandparents ended up with nothing to show for their years of thrift and saving, and felt humiliated and betrayed. I remember feeling how unjust this was as a child, and my feelings about means testing today are based on the memory of what I still see as an injustice.

Perhaps they could rely on their sense of superiority to keep themselves warm.

Surely what we need is a good basic state pension - for all.

MayBee70

Didn’t the government promise to put a cap on nursing home fees? Is anything happening about that?

I think that was May MayBee70 and it didn't go down very well.

Boris had one of his oven ready plans - which as usual meant he had nothing to offer. I can't think of anything they have actually come up with that has legs I'm afraid.

Delene100

If the government can waste 30bn+ on a track and trace system that doesn't work it can afford to give people a decent pension. My pension rise was just £4 per month for 2021. I have had to find other means of supplementing my pension by taking in a lodger.

Again, I don't understand this. If your only income is the basic State Pension you can get Pension Credit. Why did you have to find other means?

If you are in that position, you should apply. If enough people did, i.e., all the eligible people, the government might see the point in putting the basic pension up.

katy1950

I would suggest that instead of paying billions in foreign aid which is given to countries that don't need it like Indian and China that should change to a disaster fund only to be paid out in an actual disaster . Leave our pensions alone

Unbelievable. Do you really not know what this government has done to the Overseas Aid Budget?

This is not an argument that has any relevance to State Pensions. They could put them up if they chose to.

I suppose the Conservatives are thinking that their core vote of pensioners have "nowhere else to go".
Even as they break their manifesto promises.

*Perhaps they could rely on their sense of superiority to keep themselves warm.

Surely what we need is a good basic state pension - for all.*

Oh, that's really unfair (to them) and unjustified to me. Why do you say that?

They weren't at all superior. My granny disapproved of drinking, but so did a lot of people of her generation. They felt humiliated (if that's what you are picking up on) by the fact that they were given pocket money instead of having the choices in their old age that they'd done without for so long, and that it was unjust because they were in exactly the same position as if they hadn't saved at all, but had enjoyed their younger years more. I was agreeing with Jillybird, who said the same thing about her mother.

What is there about my saying that that suggests that I feel (or they felt) that there should not be a fair pension for all?

I absolutely think that there should be a fair pension for all - just not a means tested one and not one that is based on the premise that older people should all have a basic lifestyle and not 'get above themselves' by providing for their old age in the hope of being able to enjoy relaxing a bit after a lifetime of work.