Earnings link crucial so relative standard of living of pensioners doesn’t fall

General Secretary of Prospect Mike Clancy, responding to the end of the pensions triple lock, said:

“The earnings link is crucial to make sure that pensioners’ standard of living doesn’t fall relative to the population as a whole.

“The UK state pension is still relatively low compared to earnings during our working life, and international comparisons. The policy objective of the triple local has not yet been met, so it is important the UK government continues to apply these increases to state pension.

“The statistical anomaly caused by the pandemic is not an excuse to sever the earnings link to the state pension. At the very least an adjusted figure should be used to take into account the pandemic’s effect on earnings, based on ONS data for August data this would mean an increase between 3.5% and 4.9%. This is expected to be significantly higher than a link to CPI with a backstop of 2.5%.”