My Conservative Home article calling for a pensions "Triple lock" based on a a wage index

I believe that Britain can and should keep the pensions "Triple lock" which guarantees that the basic state pension will always keep its' real purchasing power, rising by at least as much as inflation, and cannot fall behind wages as it did in the past.

The present version, however, of the triple lock, which made sense in 2010 when it was introduced after Gordon Brown's repeated smash and grab raids on pensioners' savings and investment, is not always fair or sustainable in the way it operates.

It sets up a "ratchet" which guarantees that over time the relative position of pensioners will always increase compared with those in work - and it can never ultimately be sustainable to promise any section of society that their income relative to the rest of society will go on increasing for ever.

I've written a piece on Conservative Home suggesting that the earnings element of the "Triple lock" should guarantee that the cumulative increase in the basic state pension must always keep up with the cumulative increase in wages and salaries, rather than making the calculation on a year-on-year basis.

You can read that article by clicking on the link below.,

Chris Whiteside: Scrapping the pensions triple lock would be wrong, but not reforming it would be a missed opportunity | Conservative Home


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