This weekend the Prime Minister pledged that a Conservative government would keep the ‘triple lock' for increases to the basic state pension for the length of the next parliament. But what would David Cameron's promise actually mean for pensioners?
What effect has the triple lock had? The triple lock, which guarantees an annual increase in line with inflation as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is highest, was introduced in the 2010 budget. The government also restored the statutory link between the basic state pension and average earnings, which had been broken in 1980, and reintroduced in the Pensions Act 2007. The triple lock has seen the basic state pension for a single person increase from £95.25 a week to in 2010/2011 to £113.10 in 2014/15. Pension consultant Towers Watson es...
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