THE GUARDIAN – LETTERS: Readers respond to suggestions that the Conservatives are considering plans to water down the scheme designed to enhance the state pension
Your report (Treasury officials mull one-off break from pensions triple lock, 12 September) says: “Any change to the way the state pension is calculated would be controversial because the Conservatives pledged in their last election manifesto to abide by the [triple-lock] formula.”
“Controversial” is an understatement. As recently as last month, Rishi Sunak confirmed, without any caveats and in full knowledge of the likely increase, that the triple lock would apply from next year (Sunak pledges to keep to pension triple lock despite signs of extra £10bn cost, 16 August). He even insisted he was comfortable with pensioners receiving the full annual uplift and brushed aside concerns about affordability.
If the government now backtracks on this unequivocal commitment, what does that say about Sunak’s credibility and promise to govern with “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level”? Read more letters on the triple lock here » | Mike Pender, Cardiff | Monday, September 18, 2023
Showing posts with label state pensions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label state pensions. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Temporarily Cut Triple Lock to Fund Tax Cuts, George Osborne Suggests
THE TELEGRAPH: George Osborne suggested the Government could temporarily water down the triple lock to fund tax cuts or more spending on public services amid a growing debate about the future of the state pension guarantee.
The triple lock is a key Tory pledge that ensures the state pension rises by the highest of three metrics: average earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent.
In the past, average earnings have always been calculated using the figure for wages plus bonuses but the Treasury is understood to be considering stripping out the impact of bonuses in a move which would mean a smaller than expected increase for pensioners next April.
Mr Osborne said if he were chancellor today he would be “very tempted to under-rate, i.e. not increase pensions by as much as the triple lock and other benefits, working age benefits that go to other people in society, by maybe like one or two per cent”. » | Jack Maidment, Politics Live Blog Editor | Wednesday, September 13, 2023
What a miserable SOB! Now that's truly a brilliant idea, isn't it? Why didn't Robin Hood come up with this idea, I wonder? So the man who has given us all more than twelves years of agony and austerity now wants to rob the poor to give to the rich. He wants to take a way the few crumbs that pensioners now receive each month in order to fund tax cuts for the superrich. They must need more caviare. This makes eminently good sense to insensitive, uncaring idiots, I suppose. Does this dude belong to a Satanic cult, I wonder? He is certainly no Christian. There a hot place awaiting insensitive twerps like this – in Hell! I hope the fires are already being stoked for the dickhead! – © Mark Alexander
There is already a petition by 38 Degrees against the cutting of state pensions. Please consider signing this petition for the sake of the nation's hard-hit pensioners, many of whom have little other than their measly, paltry, disgustingly small British state pension to live on anyway. Please help these people by signing this petition here.
Thursday, May 11, 2023
UK Will Have to Raise Retirement Age after Election, Minister Says
THE GUARDIAN: Work and pensions secretary says his successor will have to ‘grasp nettle’ of bringing forward rise to 68
Ministers will have to “grasp the nettle” on bringing forward the rise in the state pension age to 68 in the first couple of years of the next parliament, Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, has suggested.
After delaying the decision because of stalling life expectancy, Stride said it would still have to be taken, but it would probably be one for his successor in the job and that people would still get 10 years of notice.
He also said there were “no plans currently” to change the triple lock on raising pensions in the next Conservative manifesto but stopped short of guaranteeing it would be retained.
Stride made the remarks as he addressed journalists at a lunch in Westminster, when he was asked whether the government will attempt to revisit its plans to raise the pension age in future in light of riots and protests in France.
The work and pensions secretary, a close ally of Rishi Sunak, said: “I don’t think it’s in our national psyche to start rioting and burning things over the state pension. Ultimately I took the decision [to delay] because of Covid and economic uncertainties and the fact that the important thing is you give people 10 years notice of any change.” » | Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor | Thursday, May 11, 2023
Ministers will have to “grasp the nettle” on bringing forward the rise in the state pension age to 68 in the first couple of years of the next parliament, Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, has suggested.
After delaying the decision because of stalling life expectancy, Stride said it would still have to be taken, but it would probably be one for his successor in the job and that people would still get 10 years of notice.
He also said there were “no plans currently” to change the triple lock on raising pensions in the next Conservative manifesto but stopped short of guaranteeing it would be retained.
Stride made the remarks as he addressed journalists at a lunch in Westminster, when he was asked whether the government will attempt to revisit its plans to raise the pension age in future in light of riots and protests in France.
The work and pensions secretary, a close ally of Rishi Sunak, said: “I don’t think it’s in our national psyche to start rioting and burning things over the state pension. Ultimately I took the decision [to delay] because of Covid and economic uncertainties and the fact that the important thing is you give people 10 years notice of any change.” » | Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor | Thursday, May 11, 2023
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
Liz Truss Faces Unrest over Public Spending Cuts and Pensions Triple Lock Threat
THE GUARDIAN: Senior Tory ministers, Labour party and the public all expected to resist cuts, especially to frontline services
A YouGov poll shows half of Conservative members think Liz Truss should resign. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
Liz Truss is facing cabinet unrest over her plans for brutal public spending cuts across all departments after the disastrous mini-budget put major pledges at risk, including the pensions triple lock.
The prime minister held a 90-minute cabinet meeting on Tuesday in which she warned ministers that “difficult decisions” lay ahead.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, told them “everything is on the table” as he strives to find tens of billions of pounds in savings after ditching Truss’s economic plan. Health, education and welfare are among those areas expected to be hit.
One Whitehall official said departments were already preparing for cuts “significantly higher” than previously planned, with Hunt’s tax U-turns estimated to raise £32bn, leaving a £38bn hole in the public finances. » | Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot | Tuesday, October 18, 2022
This woman has been a bloody effing disaster! The Tories, too, are a bloody effing disaster! A bigger mess of Brexshit is hard to imagine! As for the economy being in safe hands under the Tories... well, that has been proven to be a big lie. A myth. The stuff of fairy stories. Hopefully, the Tories will soon be extinct. We can't allow our country to be run by a band of such incompetent fools ever again. – © Mark Alexander
Liz Truss promises to keep pensions triple lock: Truss’s PMQs comment at odds with Downing Street and Treasury’s previous refusal to commit to pledge »
Liz Truss is facing cabinet unrest over her plans for brutal public spending cuts across all departments after the disastrous mini-budget put major pledges at risk, including the pensions triple lock.
The prime minister held a 90-minute cabinet meeting on Tuesday in which she warned ministers that “difficult decisions” lay ahead.
The chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, told them “everything is on the table” as he strives to find tens of billions of pounds in savings after ditching Truss’s economic plan. Health, education and welfare are among those areas expected to be hit.
One Whitehall official said departments were already preparing for cuts “significantly higher” than previously planned, with Hunt’s tax U-turns estimated to raise £32bn, leaving a £38bn hole in the public finances. » | Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot | Tuesday, October 18, 2022
This woman has been a bloody effing disaster! The Tories, too, are a bloody effing disaster! A bigger mess of Brexshit is hard to imagine! As for the economy being in safe hands under the Tories... well, that has been proven to be a big lie. A myth. The stuff of fairy stories. Hopefully, the Tories will soon be extinct. We can't allow our country to be run by a band of such incompetent fools ever again. – © Mark Alexander
Liz Truss promises to keep pensions triple lock: Truss’s PMQs comment at odds with Downing Street and Treasury’s previous refusal to commit to pledge »
Liz Truss May Abandon Pension Triple Lock and Says ‘Difficult Decisions’ Ahead
THE GUARDIAN: Spokesperson says it is ‘right to consider all options’ as PM is pushed to reaffirm defence spending plan
Liz Truss could abandon the state pension triple lock to help plug the fiscal black hole after her disastrous mini-budget, leaving more than 12 million pensioners facing a real-terms cut in their incomes in April.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson refused four times to commit to keeping the pensions guarantee despite it being a key 2019 manifesto commitment that Truss confirmed she would stick with it just two weeks ago.
In contrast, Truss backed off a plan to scrap the government’s commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 after the defence ministers Ben Wallace and James Heappey threatened to quit.
The prime minister told her cabinet on Tuesday there were “difficult decisions” ahead over where the spending cuts would fall in a 90-minute meeting from which ministers emerged grim-faced. » | Pippa Crerar, Political editor | Tuesday, October 18, 2022
It is the country that should abandon this airhead, rather than the Tories abandoning the Triple Lock. What a disgrace the Tories have become. They are a shadow of their former selves.
If the country cannot afford to inflation-proof pensioners’ state pensions in these highly inflationary times, then it begs one very simple question: Can this country afford a monarchy, with all the attendant costs that maintaining a monarchy entails?
Maybe it would be a better idea to keep our pensioners warm and fed during winter and afford them a decent standard of living rather than p*** money against the wall maintaining multiple castles and palaces that are lived in for a very short time during the year anyway.
I write this not as a committed republican but as a person committed to seeing some equity and justice in society. – © Mark Alexander
Liz Truss could abandon the state pension triple lock to help plug the fiscal black hole after her disastrous mini-budget, leaving more than 12 million pensioners facing a real-terms cut in their incomes in April.
The prime minister’s official spokesperson refused four times to commit to keeping the pensions guarantee despite it being a key 2019 manifesto commitment that Truss confirmed she would stick with it just two weeks ago.
In contrast, Truss backed off a plan to scrap the government’s commitment to raise defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2030 after the defence ministers Ben Wallace and James Heappey threatened to quit.
The prime minister told her cabinet on Tuesday there were “difficult decisions” ahead over where the spending cuts would fall in a 90-minute meeting from which ministers emerged grim-faced. » | Pippa Crerar, Political editor | Tuesday, October 18, 2022
It is the country that should abandon this airhead, rather than the Tories abandoning the Triple Lock. What a disgrace the Tories have become. They are a shadow of their former selves.
If the country cannot afford to inflation-proof pensioners’ state pensions in these highly inflationary times, then it begs one very simple question: Can this country afford a monarchy, with all the attendant costs that maintaining a monarchy entails?
Maybe it would be a better idea to keep our pensioners warm and fed during winter and afford them a decent standard of living rather than p*** money against the wall maintaining multiple castles and palaces that are lived in for a very short time during the year anyway.
I write this not as a committed republican but as a person committed to seeing some equity and justice in society. – © Mark Alexander
Friday, September 30, 2022
Early Liz Truss Comments on Scrapping Benefits Stoke Fears of Further Cuts
THE GUARDIAN: Proposals from 1995 condemning ‘recycling’ of taxpayers’ money add to concerns for universal credit increase
The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, right, arriving in Darlington on Thursday, said it was ‘premature’ to say if benefits would rise in line with inflation. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA
Liz Truss has previously suggested universal benefits such as the state pension should be scrapped because of the “huge expense” to taxpayers of “recycling” their money through the system – prompting fears she could go further still with her plans to cut back the benefits bill.
The proposal, included in her motion to the Liberal Democrat Youth conference in spring 1995, highlighted the “enormous – and rising – cost of pensions and child benefit”, calling for a “search for realistic alternatives to universal benefits”.
Truss, who left the party the next year to join the Conservatives, had added that it was not “socially desirable to pay out universal benefits in the current fashion”, given the “huge expense to the taxpayers of recycling money through the tax system”. » | Pippa Crerar, Political editor | Friday, September 30, 2022
State pensions are NOT a “benefit”! Benefits are handouts from the government. State pensions have to be paid for, by law, by the eventual recipient.
Madame Truss is going the right way about getting people onto the streets! I see before me a ‘winter of discontent’. In order to avoid this happening, I suggest that Madame Truss be unceremoniously kicked out of Number 10. I also suggest that her sidekick, the practitioner of voodoo economics, also be kicked out of Number 11. BEFORE they do any more damage to this country and its economy. The Tories should be kicked out of office forthwith, as well. They have been in office for far too long. As a result, they are stale and bereft of any good ideas.
I suggest that Madame Truss be recycled: recycled into the dustbin of history! – © Mark Alexander
Liz Truss has previously suggested universal benefits such as the state pension should be scrapped because of the “huge expense” to taxpayers of “recycling” their money through the system – prompting fears she could go further still with her plans to cut back the benefits bill.
The proposal, included in her motion to the Liberal Democrat Youth conference in spring 1995, highlighted the “enormous – and rising – cost of pensions and child benefit”, calling for a “search for realistic alternatives to universal benefits”.
Truss, who left the party the next year to join the Conservatives, had added that it was not “socially desirable to pay out universal benefits in the current fashion”, given the “huge expense to the taxpayers of recycling money through the tax system”. » | Pippa Crerar, Political editor | Friday, September 30, 2022
State pensions are NOT a “benefit”! Benefits are handouts from the government. State pensions have to be paid for, by law, by the eventual recipient.
Madame Truss is going the right way about getting people onto the streets! I see before me a ‘winter of discontent’. In order to avoid this happening, I suggest that Madame Truss be unceremoniously kicked out of Number 10. I also suggest that her sidekick, the practitioner of voodoo economics, also be kicked out of Number 11. BEFORE they do any more damage to this country and its economy. The Tories should be kicked out of office forthwith, as well. They have been in office for far too long. As a result, they are stale and bereft of any good ideas.
I suggest that Madame Truss be recycled: recycled into the dustbin of history! – © Mark Alexander
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