Downing Street has said that prime minister Rishi Sunak will not commit to raising state pension payments in tandem with inflation, ahead of the government’s fiscal statement on November 17.
Sunak’s predecessor Liz Truss – whose tenure in Number 10 was short-lived – had committed to retaining the triple lock during a session of Prime Minister’s Questions.
The triple lock dictates that pension payments increase by whichever is higher out of inflation, average wages or 2.5 per cent.
Over recent weeks, Conservative MPs have urged government to preserve the triple lock – a pledge within the party’s 2019 election manifesto – in order to ensure that pension payments keep pace with soaring prices. One of these is Mel Stride, the former chair of the Commons Treasury Select Committee who has been promoted to work and pensions secretary in Sunak’s cabinet.
But after Truss had committed to it, Sunak has backtracked on that commitment with Number 10 saying that a decision on the matter will be “wrapped up into the fiscal statement” when it comes in mid-November.
Once a decision is made, pensions will then increase from April as is customary by whichever rate the government decides.
The prime minister’s press secretary did point out that Sunak boasted a record of doing “what’s right” being “compassionate for the most vulnerable” during his time as chancellor under Boris Johnson’s premiership.
Speaking at his first Prime Minister’s Questions, while Sunak also stopped short of directly committing to raising benefits in line with inflation, he did suggest that the government would continue to act compassionately in its decision-making.
Responding to a question from the SNP’s leader in Westminster, Ian Blackford, Sunak said: “My record on this is clear. Through the difficult times that we faced in this country through Covid I always acted in a way to protect the most vulnerable.
“That's because it is the right thing to do and those are the values of our compassionate party, and I can absolutely reassure him and give him that commitment that we will continue to act like that in the weeks ahead.”
Labour shadow work and pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth pointed out that keeping the triple lock was a pledge outlined in the Tories’ 2019 manifesto and hit out at the PM for threatening to renege on that commitment.
Ashworth said: “Rishi Sunak stood on a manifesto in 2019 on a pledge to keep the triple lock. Now he's threatening that promise to Britain's retirees.”
The triple lock has been a permanent fixture in UK pensions policy since its introduction in 2010, barring a one-year hiatus during the Covid-19 pandemic.
