Triple lock is a really hard one as is means-testing the state pension

It's hard to defend the triple lock but given the frothing at the notion that the state pension becomes enough to have to pay a teensy bit of tax on the last few hundred quid or so of it you can only imagine the hay the Daily Mail/Express Tendency, i.e. an important part of Reform's base, would make of it were the triple lock to be touched.

Logically, if the state pension is enough to attract income tax, that's a Good Thing because the recipients are getting more even after tax, but logic doesn't always matter in politics. Logically the country simply can't afford ever-escalating pension costs with an ageing population.

When the state pension first came in, eight workers supported each pensioner, and you didn't live long in retirement. These days it's somewhere between 2 and 3 workers per pensioner and we expect a decade or two, not a year or two, after retiring at 65 or 68 or whatever it is these days.

Means-testing the state pension, which is a benefit, again might seem sensible but it would be a pretty impossible sell ("they're punishing us for doing the right thing by saving up for our retirement, we've paid squillions in NI and were told our stamp was towards our pension even though anyone with a brain can see NI that comes in this morning gets spent this afternoon and not all on pensions"), and would drastically impact private pension contributions as well because as well as the projected benefit you'd need to factor in the loss of state pension after a certain point.

It's a genuinely hard question and I don't see a good logical answer let alone a good way to communicate that which The Political Opposition Of The Day wouldn't have an absolute field day ripping to shreds.

Just look at the reaction to the winter fuel thing, I think they got the qualifier wrong because pensions credit is too complicated for many who'd qualify to apply for (you could just work it off HMRC RTI which would be much simpler and sees everything taxable which comes in, from other pensions or side hustles or whatever); but it's pretty indefensible that someone with a comfortable pension from all sources gets a bung they don't need when others are using food banks.

And yet it's the most glaring of a number of political missteps the government has taken.

Posted By: Old Man on May 12th 2025 at 11:40:13

Message Thread

Reply to Message

In order to add a post to the WotB Message Board you must be a registered WotB user.

If you are not yet registered then please visit the registration page. You should ensure that their browser is setup to accept cookies.

Log in