Andy Burnham's attack on the state pension triple lock is only the start of a wider war on pensioners, warns the Daily Express. The Labour figure has said he will scrap the current system from 2030 if Labour is in power. The move follows years of mounting pressure on older people, often framed as intergenerational warfare.
The Triple Lock's Value
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, state pensioners collectively receive £16 billion more a year than if the state pension had simply risen with earnings. That amounts to £800 per pensioner annually.
Burnham's proposal comes as many older people already feel under siege. Young people often argue that older generations benefited from affordable housing and growing wages, but both have stagnated since the financial crisis two decades ago. Jobs are also scarce, partly due to Rachel Reeves's decision to make younger workers more expensive to employ.
Pensioner Tax Pressures
The article argues that the idea older people had it easy is a fantasy, noting they toiled for decades to build a threadbare state pension. It also points out that younger generations will inherit the benefits of higher house prices.
Rachel Reeves has already taken action affecting pensioners. She initially removed the winter fuel payment from pensioners on as little as £11,350 a year before a U-turn. She has also dragged unused pensions into the inheritance tax net, hiked taxes on capital gains and dividends, imposed a 2% surcharge on savings and rental incomes, and extended the freeze on the £12,570 personal allowance, pulling more pensioners into income tax.
Cross-Party Pressure
The pressure is not solely from Labour. Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt introduced the income tax threshold freeze, went hard on capital gains and dividends, and capped tax-free pension cash withdrawals at £268,275. His 4p cut to National Insurance did not help pensioners, who do not pay it.
Yet Hunt never touched the triple lock, and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch stands by it today, as does Nigel Farage's Reform UK. However, Badenoch admitted it would be "difficult" to reinstate the triple lock if it is completely scrapped or reformed. The Express argues that once the triple lock is gone, it will never return, as the money will be instantly spent elsewhere.
The Express is therefore launching a campaign to defend the triple lock, warning that its fall would not mark the end of the war on pensioners, nor even the beginning of the end.
