State pensioners are “furious” over new Triple Lock rules set to be mulled over by both the ruling Labour Party government AND the Opposition, the Tories. Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative Party leader, warned the Tories would explore “means testing” the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) state pension.
Ms Badenoch said the Tories will consider means-testing the triple lock, while No 10 has not ruled it out. “The whole idea of the triple lock was to make sure that the pensions increase with inflation and everything like that”, one state pensioner told GB News.
A second said: “One of the problems was, much earlier on, pensions never went up with inflation. People who are on pensions were always seeing their pensions reduce in real terms. Obviously, when the triple lock came in, which was basically in the coalition government, that was a major improvement for pensioners.”
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Another added: “I think every senior citizen would be worried about it because inflation is sadly going up and I can’t see it’s going to come down in the near future. It’s a huge concern. It’s concerning because nobody knows how long they’re going to live.”
“They’ve already taken the heating allowance away”, another commented. “I don’t know why. Probably because not many of them are going to vote for them, I suppose.” A fifth asked the news website and TV channel: “Where’s the money going to come from?”
“I’m preparing now for the future. I can’t rely on state pension. I’m getting organised and saving as much as I can to put away for my pensionwhen I get there.” Payments will increase 4.1 percent this April, with the average earnings figure used to determine this year’s increase.
This will lift the full new state pension from the current £221.20 a week to £230.25 a week, while the full basic state pension will go up from £169.50 a week to £176.45 a week.