Sunak Hints U.K. Government May Drop Pensions Triple Lock

[Paddy]

You could say the same about tax thresholds - lots of stealth tax increases there, as the thresholds don't keep pace with inflation.
Even general pay rises, case in point being the 1% "increase" offered to the NHS workers, which is a real terms cut of about the same. There should be some rule about calling a payrise a "rise" when it is lower than the rate of inflation, and any quoted increase should be based off the inflations figure just as it is for GDP.

There was the old trick of employers making 10% pay cut for workers, and them give them a 10% increase a few months later. However, his does not work out

[d000hg]

There should be some rule about calling a payrise a "rise" when it is lower than the rate of inflation, and any quoted increase should be based off the inflations figure just as it is for GDP.

Increases could always be given in terms of "X% above inflation" I suppose.

[d000hg]

Seems to me the 3XL in principle is good but never took this kind of corner case into account - an omission that can I think be understood. How might you design an alternative to deliver the intended result of 3XL without being vulnerable to this particular issue where salaries fall off a cliff then bounce back? Simply take it over a longer period than 1 year?

[mattster]

The UK state pension needs to double in order to make up lost ground.

You could say the same about tax thresholds - lots of stealth tax increases there, as the thresholds don't keep pace with inflation.
Even general pay rises, case in point being the 1% "increase" offered to the NHS workers, which is a real terms cut of about the same. There should be some rule about calling a payrise a "rise" when it is lower than the rate of inflation, and any quoted increase should be based off the inflations figure just as it is for GDP.

[SueEllen]

Manifesto promise - should be automatically triggering new election with party leadership who broke promise going to jail for 10 to life

We don't put ex-ministers in prison unfortunately.....

[AtW]

Manifesto promise - should be automatically triggering new election with party leadership who broke promise going to jail for 10 to life

[SueEllen]

Even as an old fart I don't see a good reason for this triple lock thing. Nor that annual heating allowance.

The sad thing is the people who had only the state pension to live on claimed pension credit, as is rightly theirs, the Treasury would lose a few billion.

[Paddy]

Even as an old fart I don't see a good reason for this triple lock thing. Nor that annual heating allowance.

The idea of the triple lock was to make sure state pensions don't fall behind. However, prior to the triple lock state pension did fall behind and they have never caught up. UK state pensions are among the lowest in Europe and are the lowest in Europe if the cost of living is taken into account. The UK state pension needs to double in order to make up lost ground.

https://researchbriefings.files.parl...90/SN00290.pdf

[Whorty]

The "good reason" is that it keeps the pensioners voting Tory. Remember the hysteria over the "Corbyn will take your pension" stories at the last GE?

That will be the message spun now by Tories .... well, if you think this is bad, you just need to see what Starmer would do

Vote Tory - we're bad, but it could be worse

[DaveB]

Even as an old fart I don't see a good reason for this triple lock thing. Nor that annual heating allowance.

The "good reason" is that it keeps the pensioners voting Tory. Remember the hysteria over the "Corbyn will take your pension" stories at the last GE?

[mattster]

The BBC story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57762787

So the part of the triple-lock that relates to salary growth is simply measuring the difference between date X on subsequent years, is that right?

That seems to be the way it works, so this is a statistical fluke based on the rebound from lower wages last year - which of course they were immune to, due to the triple lock. The triple lock was always a stupid idea, economically at least, but bribes do tend to be popular electorally. That, and stopping at nothing to keep house prices high, keeps the oldies sleeping well at night.

[xoggoth]

Even as an old fart I don't see a good reason for this triple lock thing. Nor that annual heating allowance.

[d000hg]

The BBC story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57762787

So the part of the triple-lock that relates to salary growth is simply measuring the difference between date X on subsequent years, is that right? So the high salary growth is the recovery from depressed levels during Covid, e.g. if salaries fluctuated 10% up then down every 2 years this would be a recurring problem?

On that basis it makes total sense to break the lock BUT can you imagine the frothing on FB and in the news? Rishi could lose all this popularity he gained, for making an obviously sensible decision.

[Martin@AS Financial]

Interesting report from Bloomberg:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...premium-europe