Maintaining state pensions triple-lock would hit poorer areas of Yorkshire - MPs

MPs on the Work and Pensions Committee argued the cost of maintaining the triple-lock was likely to be a further raising of the pension age to 70.

Its report warned that, with average male life expectancy in Bradford and Leeds running below 70 years of age, people in poorer areas would be paying into a system from which they would not benefit.

The triple-lock was introduced by the coalition government in 2010 and promises an annual rise in state pensions by inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the higher.

It was designed to avoid a repeat of the criticism heaped on Labour when pensions rose by just 75 per week in 2000.

The Conservatives committed to maintaining the triple-lock at the last General Election but Chancellor Philip Hammond hinted in last year’s Autumn Statement that it could be dropped in the next Parliament.

Frank Field MP, chairman of the Work and Pensions Committee, said: “With the triple lock in place the only way state pension expenditure can be made sustainable is to keep raising the state pension age.

“This has the effect of excluding ever more people from the state pension altogether.

“Such people will disproportionately be from more deprived areas and manual occupations, while those benefitting most will be the relatively prosperous.

“By 2020 the state pension will be at a level where it will provide a decent minimum income for people in retirement to underpin private saving, and any savings they have will be kept on top of, not clawed back from, the state pension.

“The triple lock will have done its job and it will be time therefore to retire it.”

Research for the committee by the respected Institute For Fiscal Studies found that to maintain the triple lock within projected spending levels would require the pension age to rise to 70.5 by 2060.

The MPs’ report warned that such a move would mean today’s young people would have to work for half a century before receiving a state pension.

The committee has previously suggested the triple-lock should be replaced by a “smoothed earnings” link.

Labour has committed to maintaining the triple-lock if it wins the next General Electionand is calling on Mr Hammond to do the same in the Budget next week.

Debbie Abrahams, Labour’s Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “The last Labour government were responsible for a historic reduction in pensioner poverty levels. A record that we remain hugely proud of.

“The Chancellor must use this Budget to provide clarity on the issue of the triple lock, and follow Labour’s lead by committing to the policy beyond 2020.”