The soon to be former State Pensions Triple Lock

The architect of the Triple Lock was Coalition Pensions Minister Steve Webb, a Liberal Democrat, in that generally otherwise appalling government which condemned the Lib Dems to many years of political oblivion.

It was a surprisingly progressive policy, oddly at times credited to George Osborne! It’s aim was to try to redress the fact that the UK state pension was far too low and many pensioners were living in poverty, unless they had additional sources of income. It was Liberalism in action, although it was clouded in Nick Clegg’s stupid about turn on Tuition Fees – don’t get me started on that debacle!!!

I guess the Tories only supported it reluctantly, as it was in no way a Conservative approach to poverty. That would be to ignore it!

Burnham seems to have turned it into a Double Lock with a vague promise to assess whether it keeps pace with wages every now and again. It’s probably what a Tory government would do, or have actually done, if they weren’t so concerned about the age profile of their own voters being 65+.

The comfortably off have pretty much always opposed the Triple Lock on the basis they don’t need the extra state pension and I include here some people who consider themselves progressive too. Keep repeating that the Triple Lock is unaffordable and eventually you’ll get many people repeating it, although not the less well off, of course.

Yes, I get the affordability issue but then again things that benefit the poor/less well off have never been affordable and they never will be. I also take the view that comfortably well off people seeking to reduce things that the poorest benefit from will usually be code for we want our taxes cutting.

Now to give Burnham some credit he says he wants to use what’s hypothetically saved from the Triple Lock to tackle our care crisis. I hope he means it too.

The Tories made us the most taxed we’ve been for generations, yet our public services are on their knees due to the 2007 financial crash, Brexit and Covid with austerity still very much alive and kicking us daily. Will Burnham’s move to a Double Lock on state pensions work? Will it create trouble for him with the ever growing ranks of pensioners? Will our state pensions slide back again over the years? Remember even after quite a few years of the Triple Lock our state pensions are still much lower than in many developed counties.

So let’s celebrate the work of Steve Webb, who saw poverty, far too much of it, within pensioners and did something positive about it. That he’s no longer in the House of Commons is a detriment to progressive politics. But at least the comfortably off now have something to celebrate, you might say…………...