The campaign group, Silver Voices, are leading the fight against this unacceptable and misleading situation. Their viewpoint is as follows…
TRIPLE LOCK AND STATE PENSION COME UNDER RENEWED ATTACK
In a coordinated campaign, the state pension and the Triple Lock updating system have come under renewed attack from those who argue that the state pension cannot be afforded and is unsustainable in the long term. The attacks are highly selective and biased and pick on older people as the scapegoats for the current economic crisis.
The supposedly independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has led the way with headline-making comments such as the Triple Lock is costing three times more than the original estimates, and that pension, health and other age-related spending make UK public finances “unsustainable in the long-run”. Of course, the Triple Lock has cost more, as we have been through an unprecedented pandemic, and energy and cost-of-living crises, through which the whole population, including pensioners, have had to be supported. £70 billion was spent on the furlough scheme to support working families through the pandemic but this impact on the economy is never emphasised.
The OBR states that the cost of the state pension has risen from 2% of the economy to 5% today and is projected to rise to 7.7%. But the 2% is based on the situation just after World War Two, over 70 years ago when most people died by the age of 70, and the 7.7% projection is for the early 2070s! So, they use a timeframe of over 120 years to justify their weak arguments when we have known for decades that the UK population is ageing. Even by 2070, using this OBR projection, we will be spending less on state pensions than most developed countries do today (e.g. France 12%, Germany 9.8%).
Piling in against the Triple Lock has been the notoriously anti-pensioner Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), with a rather sneaky suggestion in a recent report. The IFS suggests that the Government should set a target level for the state pension as a proportion of average earnings (currently 30%) and dispense with the Triple Lock once that target is reached. The Report does not specify what that target should be but the retiring director of IFS, Paul Johnson, has let the cat out of the bag by suggesting it should be only 31% or 32% before the Lock is scrapped. If the Government set the target at half average earnings (£340 per week) we might just be willing to discuss the end of the Triple Lock!
What has been most worrying is that the majority of media outlets, including the BBC, have carried these reports uncritically, and speculated about the end of the Triple Lock, possible means-testing of the state pension, and accelerating the rise in the state pension age. This has all the hallmarks of a Government-inspired campaign, softening up the public before hard decisions are taken in the Autumn Budget.
Of course, Silver Voices will be battling on your behalf to get over the alternative case, including:
• Of course, the costs of the state pension are high in total because there are 13 million older people in the UK past retirement age, but the state pension for each individual is remarkably low compared to other developed countries (two thirds of older people are still on the old state pension of £176 per week)
• Most other developed countries choose to invest far more of their economy into providing a state pension which ensures a dignified and longer retirement. The state pension should not be regarded as a burden on the economy but as an investment that every civilized society should make. Supporting the state pension to make it affordable, is a political choice
• We have all paid for our state pension through national insurance and tax contributions throughout our working lives and those younger people criticising pensioners today will need the safety net of the state pension even more than our generations, when they eventually retire
An interview with Dennis Reed in the i newspaper covered some of these arguments. The link to the article is on our website media page, but you need a subscription to inews to read it.
Our defence of the state pension in the face of these attacks has led to hundreds of new members. Why not forward this newsletter to some of your close friends and encourage them to join on the link below?
www.silvervoices.co.uk/join-us
Only Silver Voices can be trusted to oppose attacks on the state pension and the Triple Lock!
16 July 2025
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The UK Government’s ongoing assault on pensioners is a dark stain on our country. Our nation’s elders deserve proper respect and the full support of their elected representatives, not the disgusting distain and brutality we are currently witnessing.
WAKE UP UK!
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