Having led a ‘cross party group of MPs from all sides of the House of Lords who defeated the Bill on the Triple Lock, Baroness Ros Altmann thanked the NPC for our work on this campaign and others.
She wrote: “Well done to the NPC for all the work you do. The Amendments to preserve the triple lock earnings link is going back to MPs next week and they have a chance to honour their Manifesto commitments to pensioners. It is up to the Government to decide whether it will agree an increase better than the inadequate 3.1% September cpi, which was itself too low as a result of the pandemic measures last year. We shall see.”
Download the NPC press release on the Triple lock or read it below
MPs must make last ditch U-turn in Commons to stop ‘shameful’ Bill on pensions Triple Lock
Baroness Altmann: ‘Wrong to take away promised protection from millions’
MPs must make a last stand to save the Triple Lock on pensions in Parliament on Monday (15th November) says the National Pensioners’ Convention.
The NPC is calling on its 1.1million members to write, phone, tweet, or Facebook their local MPs to press them stop a Bill suspending the Triple Lock when it returns to the House of Commons for its third and final reading.
The UK’s largest campaign group for older people is grateful to the cross-party group of Peers in the House of Lords, including Baroness Ros Altmann, who this week voted to send the Bill back to MPs with an amendment to keep the Triple Lock.
Now we want our MPs to show the same courage in the House of Commons to save the measure which ensures the state pension rises next April by the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5%. The government wants to axe the wage growth element this year because of an unusually high rise in earnings.
Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the NPC said: “Our members are angry that MPs are not defending the Triple Lock which safeguards state pension increases. By suspending the Triple Lock, the Government are not only breaking a Manifesto promise, they are also condemning millions of pensioners on low incomes to fall further into poverty as prices sky-rocket.
“It is still possible for the Government to do a U-Turn and save the Triple Lock – after all, they seem able to do it with just about everything else except pensions, and indeed care. “It is quite clear that this government has no understanding of what life is like for most pensioners, who live on £10,000 a year or less. Their income is protected at a level far above anything a pensioner in the UK could ever hope to reach.
“Not all pensioners are wealthy – only 545,000 of them pay tax at the higher rates, with around 6 million pensioners not earning enough to pay any tax at all.
“Whilst Pension Credit is a lifeline for some, many pensioners have income just above the threshold and struggle to make ends meet. That’s why keeping the Triple Lock is so important. The increases that the triple lock gives accumulate over time, so suspending it now means that pensioners of the future will lose out”
Jan Shortt sincerely thanks all the Peers, including Baroness Ros Altmann, Lord Prem Sikka, and Lord Davies for their hard work and support for pensioners on this issue.
Baroness Ros Altmann, pensions expert and former Pensions Minister said: “Having won the vote in the Lords, it is now up to MPs and also to the public to see if we can save the triple lock. It is only the MPs who have the power to do this, we in the Lords can only recommend it to them. If MPs start getting loads of letters or messages from constituents asking them to think again, then hopefully they will realise this decision is flawed and that they need to honour their triple lock commitments made at the 2019 Election. In the eye of a cost-of-living storm, it is just wrong to take away promised protection from millions of pensioners. The money the Chancellor is saving on state pensions is going towards cutting alcohol duty and cutting taxes on banks. What type of priorities or values are these?”
ENDS