Labour MP Neil Duncan-Jordan has warned that Prime Minister Andy Burnham's decision to scrap the State Pension Triple Lock could be as politically damaging as the party's earlier move to cut winter fuel payments. The warning marks the first major public disagreement within the party over the policy, which Burnham says is needed partly to fund a national care service.
Duncan-Jordan, who was previously disciplined for leading criticism of proposals to means-test cold-weather payments, questioned how the change could be justified when pensioners are forced to survive on less than £13,000 a year after a lifetime of work.
Backbench rebellion fears
Speaking to the Express, Duncan-Jordan said: "Commentators across the political class often reach for what they think is such low-hanging fruit and decry the Triple Lock as some unnecessary, extravagant expenditure that simply props up wealthy pensioners who spend all their time on lavish cruises. The reality is somewhat different. The UK still has 1.9 million older people living in poverty."
The comments are likely to embarrass the Prime Minister and bolster Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch at the start of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, where she vowed to protect the Triple Lock.
Currently, the State Pension increases each April by the highest of inflation, 2.5% or average earnings. Under Burnham's plans from 2030, it will rise either in line with prices or 2.5% each year, whichever is higher, but not in line with earnings unless its value has fallen behind, in which case it will be adjusted to keep pace.
Criticism from unions and charities
Labour has called the policy an "adjusted Triple Lock", but critics claim it shows the party sees pensioners, who make up one fifth of the electorate, as politically expendable. There are suggestions that the change could be implemented sooner, with a vote to scrap it during this Parliament.
Badenoch pledged to save the Triple Lock and attacked the Prime Minister for "going after the elderly". She told the Express: "There is nothing that has happened that has made me change my mind."
The Conservatives claim Labour is "cutting pensions for millions of people rather than cutting benefits" and have launched a petition demanding the PM "cuts welfare, not the Triple Lock".
A Conservative spokesman said: "Pensioners built this country. They worked hard, paid in and did the right thing. They live on fixed incomes. Most cannot work. That is why the Conservatives invented the Triple Lock. Because we recognise contribution.
"Any serious plan to reduce Government spending must start with working-age welfare, not with taking money from people who have already earned what they get. Andy Burnham needs to cut welfare and get Britain working again. Not punish those who spent a lifetime contributing."
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, Labour's largest union backer, said removing the pension triple lock would penalise the "poorest in society". She said: "Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year, in order to pay for it, to take their security from them, is wrong. I think it's morally wrong.
"We need to look at other ways. And I can't understand why we keep going to the well of the poorest in society as a Labour Government. Why are we doing that instead of taxing the rich in our society?"
History of the Triple Lock
The Triple Lock was introduced in 2011 by the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition Government to address rising pensioner poverty caused by linking state pensions only to prices. In 1979, the State Pension was worth 26% of average earnings, but the link with wages was cut in 1980, and before the triple lock, it had plunged to 16% of average earnings.
The mechanism reversed the fall, and the full new State Pension - £241.30 a week or £12,547.60 a year - is equal to roughly 30% of median full-time pay.
Former Pensions Minister Baroness Ros Altmann said: "The Triple Lock was introduced because the UK's basic State Pension had fallen so far behind the rest of the economy, and pensioners were often in poverty. And the reason this happened was that, for many years, the State Pension only increased in line with prices and not earnings.
"It has helped restore the value of state pensions, lifting more pensioners above the poverty line. However, there are still millions of older people living on very little and struggling to make ends meet.
"Our basic State Pension is one of the lowest in the developed world. By suggesting he wants to only raise state pensions by CPI or 2.5%, older citizens who are living just on the State Pension will understandably fear going back to the bad old days, which the Triple Lock has helped move away from."
Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said: "Pensioner poverty has not been vanquished and the last few years show how insidiously it can creep back if governments look away. Protecting those older people who are vulnerable, or on the lowest incomes, should be the ultimate test of this Government's reforms - it can't be social care or financial security, in a civilised society it must be both."
In one of its first acts after winning the 2024 General Election, Labour axed the Winter Fuel Payment and said only those in receipt of Pension Credit would get it. Instead of cash being automatically paid to 10.8 million pensioners in England and Wales, the number of recipients was slashed to 1.5 million. After an outcry led by Duncan-Jordan and pressure from the Express, former Chancellor Rachel Reeves was forced into a U-turn. The tax-free grant of £200 per household, or £300 where there is someone over 80, is now made automatically to around 9 million OAPs.
Duncan-Jordan said: "I want the Burnham Government to succeed, and the Triple Lock proposal could be as politically unpopular as Starmer's winter fuel debacle. That's why I'm urging the PM to think again. Let's fund a better care system by asking all of us to pay for it – not just pensioners."
