Backseat Driver, Former PM Tony Blair Reckons The Triple-Lock...

It's the Tony Blair Think-tank, not the man himself. They have come up with various suggestions which the government have disagreed with and said categorically that they will keep the triple lock.

Well if the government have said categorically that the triple lock will stay, you can rest assured it will go. Why would anyone believe a word they say ? How many times now have they said one thing and done another - too many.

'Back seat driver'.....describes Blair perfectly. Is he the one still pulling the strings...because Starmer is obviously acting under instructions from a higher authority.
I think perhaps someone in parliament reads Gransnet and is aware of the support the Labour party has from its members and doesn't want to lose it. (I don't include myself in that category as I think Tony Blair is responsible for much of the mess this country is in.)

I have long thought it should go and just be tied to the growth of annual earnings, why should we do better than our children?

Pensioner poverty is a seprate issue best dealt with through ensionCreit, or, as it was more correctly known Minimum Income Guarantee.

it should ... just be tied to the growth of annual earnings

I don’t understand what you are arguing.

For five of the last eight years, the State Pension increase has been based on average earnings growth. It would have been six from eight had the earnings element not been suspended when considering the lock for April 2022.

• April 2026 (4.8% increase): Based on Average Earnings Growth (May–July 2025).

• April 2025 (4.1% increase): Based on Average Earnings Growth (May–July 2024).

• April 2024 (8.5% increase): Based on Average Earnings Growth (May–July 2023).

• April 2023 (10.1% increase): Based on September 2022 CPI Inflation.

• April 2022 (3.1% increase): Based on September 2021 CPI Inflation (after suspending the earning element)

• April 2021 (2.5%) Minimum increase

• April 2021 (3.9% increase) Based on Average Earnings Growth (May–July 2020).

• April 2020 (2.6% increase) Based on Average Earnings Growth (May–July 2019).

Wage growth causes inflation whether:

* Cost push - businesses increase the price of goods and services to pay for wage increases, or

* Demand pull - more money in the economy chasing a limited supply of goods.

Pensioners on fixed incomes are exposed to the higher prices which follow from earnings growth.

Furthermore, when based on average earnings growth, the SP is not increased until a whole year after people have had those wage increases.

SP is paid in arrear, so even though the SP rises from the first Monday on or after the 6 April, the higher amount is not paid until May. Always playing catch up.

Graphite It is currently called triple lock for a reason, the locks are wages, 2.5%band CPI. I would limit it to one lock - wages. The fact that that has been the one used for the last few years is irrelevant. The other 2 locks were still in place but not needed.

The government then has Pension credit at its disposal to deal with any extra pressures put on poorer pensioners if CPI is higher.

But I think it absolutely unacceptable, when young people and families are struggling with rising prices and slower rising wages, that older people should get a free card to get extra money that will need to come ftom the same young people's incomes.

Many pensioners have only the State pension and sometimes a small personal pension which puts them slightly above the threshold for receiving any other benefits.My own Mum fits that description, I don’t receive a pension yet.She worries every Winter about utility bills.

Also, too old to do any kind of job now there is no prospect of earning more, which younger people will do.

M0nica

Graphite It is currently called triple lock for a reason, the locks are wages, 2.5%band CPI. I would limit it to one lock - wages. The fact that that has been the one used for the last few years is irrelevant. The other 2 locks were still in place but not needed.

The government then has Pension credit at its disposal to deal with any extra pressures put on poorer pensioners if CPI is higher.

But I think it absolutely unacceptable, when young people and families are struggling with rising prices and slower rising wages, that older people should get a free card to get extra money that will need to come ftom the same young people's incomes.

Agree wholeheartedly with everything you say MOnica.

Roll on someone who has the courage to actually do away with the triple lock.

I agree Monica, there are many pensioners who would be happy without it just an adjustment according to the rise in the cost of living. It cannot be afforded, but we are the ones who vote, alas vote chasing takes precedent over the best options to balance the books

Oreo

Also, too old to do any kind of job now there is no prospect of earning more, which younger people will do.

many younger people have no prospect of earning more in the foreseeable future. All they can see ahead is the fear of unemployment

M0nica- 15.35.

Indeed. in the three months to December 2025 there were an estimated 957,000 young people (aged 16 to 24) in the UK who were not in education, employment or training (NEET) representing 12.8% of that age group.

I think it is absolutely unacceptable that people who have worked and paid NI all their working lives should be worse off than those who haven't and are claiming PC.

That is not because I don't care about the poor - anyone who knows me is aware that that is not remotely true - but because the whole welfare system is skewed towards making workers pay for everyone else. That may be ok if you are, or have been, on a decent salary with a decent pension, but if you are struggling by on minimum wage, seeing neighbours not in work getting more than your income in benefits, or working part-time and getting top-ups, and then getting more than you in pension, you must lose faith in the system. On top of that, if you need care in old age you are charged when those who haven't worked get the same care free.

I think that the LP has lost sight of this, and many of their poorer decisions have happened because they are so distanced from actual working people and they have no empathy with them. All too often other people, whether Labour voters or not, also lack that empathy. It is dangerous, as other, less scrupulous parties are very willing to make use of that disaffection and heaven help us all if they succeed.

Doodledog

I think it is absolutely unacceptable that people who have worked and paid NI all their working lives should be worse off than those who haven't and are claiming PC.

That is not because I don't care about the poor - anyone who knows me is aware that that is not remotely true - but because the whole welfare system is skewed towards making workers pay for everyone else. That may be ok if you are, or have been, on a decent salary with a decent pension, but if you are struggling by on minimum wage, seeing neighbours not in work getting more than your income in benefits, or working part-time and getting top-ups, and then getting more than you in pension, you must lose faith in the system. On top of that, if you need care in old age you are charged when those who haven't worked get the same care free.

I think that the LP has lost sight of this, and many of their poorer decisions have happened because they are so distanced from actual working people and they have no empathy with them. All too often other people, whether Labour voters or not, also lack that empathy. It is dangerous, as other, less scrupulous parties are very willing to make use of that disaffection and heaven help us all if they succeed.

👏👏👏👏👏 Well said Doodledog

mum2three

'Back seat driver'.....describes Blair perfectly. Is he the one still pulling the strings...because Starmer is obviously acting under instructions from a higher authority.
I think perhaps someone in parliament reads Gransnet and is aware of the support the Labour party has from its members and doesn't want to lose it. (I don't include myself in that category as I think Tony Blair is responsible for much of the mess this country is in.)

How can Blair be pulling any strings? What is the 'higher' authority Starmer answers to?
Maybe some Gransnetters are MPs themselves and use the threads to formulate policy on knitting patterns, words games and what to plant in the garden?
This post made me smile like nothing else has today!

They have to find the money to cover the ever growing benefits payments, don't they? Might as well be the poor old pensioners.

Doodledog

I think it is absolutely unacceptable that people who have worked and paid NI all their working lives should be worse off than those who haven't and are claiming PC.

That is not because I don't care about the poor - anyone who knows me is aware that that is not remotely true - but because the whole welfare system is skewed towards making workers pay for everyone else. That may be ok if you are, or have been, on a decent salary with a decent pension, but if you are struggling by on minimum wage, seeing neighbours not in work getting more than your income in benefits, or working part-time and getting top-ups, and then getting more than you in pension, you must lose faith in the system. On top of that, if you need care in old age you are charged when those who haven't worked get the same care free.

I think that the LP has lost sight of this, and many of their poorer decisions have happened because they are so distanced from actual working people and they have no empathy with them. All too often other people, whether Labour voters or not, also lack that empathy. It is dangerous, as other, less scrupulous parties are very willing to make use of that disaffection and heaven help us all if they succeed.

Absolutely! and why can't they see the absolute unfairness of that situation. So many of the younger people I know are working their a***s off, some with side hustles, not even to stand still sometimes.

I think the triple lock is becoming very unaffordable. Far more needs to be done for the younger generation. Not meaning to generalise but one way and another, us Boomers have had a pretty good run.

As we worked and paid for our parents pensions then our children are supposed to do so for us. It was common for most people to have a second or third job as well as their main one. So we worked our arses off too.

The old state pension is still one of the lowest in Western Europe despite the catch up that the triple lock has tried to do.

I worked from 15 to 60 contributing for 45 years and have to struggle on the old state pension which is £200 pm less than the new one. It barely covers council tax and utility bills.
As for boomers having had a pretty good run, I don’t understand what is meant by that.

I don't think there has to be choice between the young and the old. The whole system should be remodelled, so that it is a genuine 'pay in/get out' one, with exceptions for those unable to do so, obviously.

I don't need the system explaining - I do realise that it is the young who are paying our pensions, just as we paid those of the generations before us. It won't be easy, and it will take time, but the whole system needs to be revamped.

M0nica

I have long thought it should go and just be tied to the growth of annual earnings, why should we do better than our children?

Pensioner poverty is a seprate issue best dealt with through ensionCreit, or, as it was more correctly known Minimum Income Guarantee.

How exactly are we doing better than our children?
Even the new State Pension at £241.30 pw is far less than the minimum wage for a 35 hour week, let alone the old State Pension at £184.90 pw.
Those on the old State Pension fall further and further behind with each increase.

M0nica

Oreo

Also, too old to do any kind of job now there is no prospect of earning more, which younger people will do.

many younger people have no prospect of earning more in the foreseeable future. All they can see ahead is the fear of unemployment

Well, nearly every teenager I know who is still in education ie 6th form at school or FE college seems to have also found some part-time work, which will also stand them in good stead on future CVs. Menial work, yes, but some are being paid more per hour pro rata than the State Pension.
Perhaps they are just the enterprising ones.

Unemployment is down.

I was just going to say that Allira, we do fall behind with every increase. Maybe they hope we will starve or freeze to death which happened to too many pensioners regularly in pre triple lock winters.

silverlining48

As we worked and paid for our parents pensions then our children are supposed to do so for us. It was common for most people to have a second or third job as well as their main one. So we worked our arses off too.

The old state pension is still one of the lowest in Western Europe despite the catch up that the triple lock has tried to do.

I worked from 15 to 60 contributing for 45 years and have to struggle on the old state pension which is £200 pm less than the new one. It barely covers council tax and utility bills.
As for boomers having had a pretty good run, I don’t understand what is meant by that.

What I mean is we went into a world of full employment.
Many of us managed to get on the property ladder, that wasn't easy from what I remember, I don't think it ever was, like many we started with very little. We didn't have the nights out and of course the technological age and all the gadgetry was years ahead. We were a generation that missed the wars and awful times our parents and grandparents went through. I look back on my younger life and in hindsight I think I'm luckier than many young people today.

Oh and this, not that I went, but university education was free.