State pension fury as pensioners demand MPs restore Tripe Lock in crucial vote

Peers have forced the Commons to think again on plans to block a bumper payout in order to save the Treasury £5billion. Silver Voices is mobilising its members in a campaign urging MPs to now restore the link between state pension rises and increases in earnings.

Director Dennis Reed said: “The House of Lords has given the Government a chance to reflect on the hasty decision to suspend the triple lock. 

“The link with earnings was broken for thirty years last century and as a result millions of pensioners ended up in poverty. 

“We appeal to all MPs to examine their consciences before they vote. If it is right to raise the minimum wage by 6.6 percent because of the cost-of-living crisis, surely it is immoral for pensioners to be awarded less than half of that?”

Silver Voice members are writing to MPs pointing out that since they originally voted on suspending the triple lock in September, energy and fuel prices have soared.

They will say the pledge to guarantee the state pension goes up in line with inflation, earnings or 2.5 percent ‑ whichever is higher ‑ was a firm and high-profile manifesto promise by the Conservatives without any exemption clauses.

MPs will also be told the basic state pension of £137.60 a week is not enough to cover the basic necessities of life and is the lowest in the developed world.

Payments were set to rise by up to £14 a week because the pandemic skewed the figures used to calculate the increase.

The government said it was suspending the lock for a year to “ensure fairness for both pensioners and taxpayers”.

But angry peers defeated the plan last week and sent back proposals to restore the triple lock while allowing figures to be adjusted to take into account the impact of the pandemic.

It would allow an increase of five per cent instead of the 8.1 percent the lock would trigger.

Lord Foulkes, Co-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Older People, said the government should accept the changes voted on by peers, which “could help save the lives of many older people struggling to make ends meet”.

“It is astonishing that the unelected Lords seems to understand the mood of the people better than the Tories in the elected House,” he said.

“The main purpose of the Lords is to ask the Commons to think again. There could be no more important issue than their manifesto promise of keeping the pension triple lock.”