Whatever you do, don’t question whether Britain can still afford the triple lock on Britain’s state pension – unless you are braced for the backlash.
I did. Live on national TV, in front of around 1.4 million viewers, during Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. I was part of a panel discussing the welfare state, in which I also pointed out that the state pension is by far the biggest single welfare benefit in Britain, accounting for over 40 per cent of the entire national welfare and social security budget.
The triple lock guarantees the state pension rises by either 2.5 per cent, the rate of average earnings growth, or in line with Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) – whichever of the three is higher. Thanks to inflation in recent years, that has meant rather hefty pay rises for pensioners.
As soon as we came off air, my inbox was flooded with correspondence from older people calling me every name under the sun and imploring me to “try and understand” how hard pensioners have it. On the softer end of the criticism, one viewer accused me of being “unprofessional”. Another wrote: “You are young. I was once too. You will grow up and realise there are shades of grey in any situation.”
The triple lock was introduced in 2010. Previously, under Labour, the state pension had only risen in line with earnings. It seemed like an easy win for David Cameron’s coalition government, which arrived in office after a serious recession. This politically popular policy, aimed at a demographic known to vote in large numbers, came at a time when pensioner poverty was still a widespread issue.
