The Pensions Triple Lock has to go

[Flammkuchen]

When it was introduced, the aim of the Triple Lock was to increase pensions faster than earnings as the state pension was low. The TL has been very successful: pensioners now have a higher standard of living and more disposable income than working families. A pensioner couple each getting the full state pension receive £20k per year, with any private pension income on top.

This is great for them, but it comes with a trade-off. In order to increase pensions by over 10% a year, there is less money to pay nurses, teachers or doctors. Highly skilled public sector workers have low pay and there is a recruitment crisis.

AIBU to think that now that on average pensioners have higher disposable income than those in work, a policy that aims to increase pensioner income by MORE than average earnings - and so keep increasing the income of pensioner households faster than working households - needs to be rethought? Even just linking the state pension to average earnings would be better.

But I can't see why your average person in their late sixties who otherwise spends their time babysitting grandchildren several days a week (as most gp I know do!), going on cruises, walking the dog for miles, cycling, volunteering, doing U3A etc. couldn't possibly do an hour or two a day

Oh I dunno. Wait, yes I do. Because they spent decades working and paying into their private pensions and rearing their children and dreaming of the days when they were retired and could please themselves and do any or all of the above.

@WatchoRulo - I'm a leftie. But I do believe that people can work to improve their circumstances. Basic state pension yes. But children and the young cannot change their circumstances. The state has a profound moral duty to do far more for them than a grown adult who has the ability to help themselves.

And the ones who don't have the ability to fend for themselves? because there are always going to be people who by bad luck or judgement are never going to do that.

Oh sorry, you're on your own. You've - what's your splendid term for that? 'oh yes -failed at life

Leftie my arse.

This is all very well but you seem to be forgetting that older people often have health problems which would prevent them from working even if they wanted to.

I think you missed the important qualifier of a grown adult, short of disability or illness.

Yes a leftie thanks, just not an unthinking one. You can work, make something of yourself. Basic state pension and renting at 68 - is that a success? Not in my book.

The young can change their circumstances

It's called work

You don't actually think that all old people
Started off rich do you ?

With cardboard in their shoes because of the holes in the soles
Sharing a bed in a bedsit with another young woman because that was all they could afford ?

The single mother you talk about will have a lot more energy and stamina than someone in their sixties. You'll be old yourself one day, then you might be a little more tolerant.

Same here, but unfortunately they all seem to be on the side of older people and homeowners and I say that as a person who is in their 40's.

Housing is an issue which extends to many areas of society, which would solve a lot of issues if addressed, but all parties are happy to go with house price growth and the illusion of wealth.

I'm glad the market is starting to crash, but it I doubt that will help people who need it much.

Secondly, fine, maybe an 89 year old wouldn't be suited as a full time electrician or plumber. But I can't see why your average person in their late sixties who otherwise spends their time babysitting grandchildren several days a week (as most gp I know do!), going on cruises, walking the dog for miles, cycling, volunteering, doing U3A etc. couldn't possibly do an hour or two a day admin work, data entry/personal assistant stuff from home, take in ironing, sit behind a shop counter, dinner time supervision in schools, afterschool childcare, tutoring, piano lessons, freelance translation and copy writing...whatever they are good at. The world of work, the type of jobs open to people and where they can do them from isn't the same as it was even 5 years ago, let alone 50.

Saying they should get a job is one thing....getting somebody to take on a person in their late 60's/early 70's is quite another. Which is something a lot of people seem to forget.

Basic state pension and renting at 68 - is that a success? Not in my book

I'll tell my brother in his 60s who's renting because his wife decided she didn't want to be married any more and had to move out and rent that he's not a success.

I have a pretty clear idea what your criteria for success in life are. Money and lots of it, right?

Your book isn't one I'll be reading, thanks.

So could you feed and cloth two adults for £1,666 a month?

Pay heating, electricity, water, council tax, tv licence, house insurance, maintain appliances?

Bearing in mind that old people are more vulnerable to the cold and cannot go to work or for a run to keep warm. So they need their heating on all day every day during the winter !

YABVVVU And ignorant.

@midgetastic - that is my point. Pensioners have had a lifetime.

Children, those under 18, they need the help most. Well paid teachers. Properly funded schools and social services. Better quality nutrition for those places. Triple lock for them

Your brother does not rent because his wife decided she didn’t want to be married to him any more. He rents, because he hasn’t been independently financially responsible for his whole life.

You and everyone else seem to have forgotton that the Triple Lock was set aside as recently as last year because average earnings had risen by a disproportionate amount due to the bounce after Covid lockdowns.

Agree totally with you op and I say that as someone who does a huge amount of benefit checks for people. many many pensioners have way more than enough to live on, well at least until they have to start paying for care and then they can claim disability benefits to help with that and if on a disability benefit it increases the likelihood of them becoming eligible for more means tested benefits like pension credit too. A lot are shocked at the amounts they can claim. If they go into pension years renting they also get help with housing benefit for rents and council tax. If they even qualify for 1p of pension credit guarantee they get their rent and council tax paid in full. They pretty much all get winter fuel payments, bus passes free, free prescriptions, free health care. Most of them have more disposable income than any other age group of people. Yes we do see some who go into retirement with debts or alcohol or mental health issues who can't manage their money or budgets. Also many don't even spend half of what they get and I've been so shocked recently as to how many pensioners love to disclose how much cash they have stashed around the house !

@MrsDanversGlidesAgain - objectively not. I'm a single parent, for divorced and captain my own ship. Bad things happen to people. Including your brother. And me. I can't ask the state to deal with people's marriages falling apart.

Basic state pension and renting at 68 - is that a success? Not in my book.

There are many reasons why people are renting at 68....maybe you need to read a different book.

Could you break down the £2,500 in pension and related benefits. Or is it a fictitious sum?

The government is successful in getting everyone to blame each other for the cost of living crisis. Still it makes a change from the benefit bashing.

Maybe if the government didn’t give out money to all and sundry who work part time to get the maximum benefits ‘I work 16 hours a week and loss my UC if I work more’ poor me, shit show of a workforce, there wouldn’t be a problem!

The biggest disposable income group I think is the 50 to pension age group

It's certainly when wealth peaks

Once you hit pension age it declines

It's not either give pensioners dignity or fund schools properly. Failing to do both is a political (ideological) choice being made by this government.

Yeah each to their own🙄

Yeah they must be loving all of us blaming each other instead of their 12 years of stuffing their own pockets.

@TimBoothseyes - no, it's not a success. Yes some are renting due to disability or illness or tragedy. But part of life is to do with trying to make sure for yourself that life's cruelties don't affect you as much, it's better to own a property than rent in most case.