Juniewoonie
Gosh I really don’t trust any of them, they promise the earth and then when it comes down to it suddenly they forget their promises. I’m tempted by Labour but terrified that they will tax pensions and remove the triple lock.
The Tories were on track to bring more pensioners (and others on low incomes) into the tax net each year by freezing the tax personal allowance from 2021. That was Sunak’s idea.
It was two Labour backbench MPs, Jeff Rooker and Audrey Wise, who pushed for the index-linking of the tax personal allowance. That was introduced in 1977. The Rooker Wise amendment remained in place for 44 years until Sunak stopped it in 2021.
During the intervening years, it was Ed Davey who pushed (unsuccessfully) for the annual rise in the tax personal allowance to be additionally linked to earnings, a kind of triple lock on tax personal allowances.
It was Lib Deb Pension Minister under the Coalition, Steven Webb who was responsible for the introduction of the triple lock on the state pension in 2010. This increases the pension by the higher of 2.5%, the average increase in earnings or the CPI.
In other words, you have Labour and LibDems to thank for giving and trying to give more to pensioners (and others on low incomes) and Sunak for taking it away in tax rises.