Latest news

CAMPAIGNING PENSIONERS WARN PRIME MINISTER OVER PENSIONS GAMBLE: DON’T MAKE STARMER’S MISTAKE

The Scottish Pensioners’ Forum, the campaigning organisation for older people in Scotland, has today demanded that Prime Minister Andy Burnham come clean over the future of the State Pension triple lock amid reports that he is preparing to open the door to its removal after the next General Election.

Rose Jackson, SPF’s spokesperson argued:

“As soon as he took office, Sir Keir Starmer chose to deprive older people of their winter fuel allowance, - a crass misjudgement which cost him and his party dear. We call on Andy Burnham to learn from Starmer’s mistake and make clear his commitment to the hard-earned rights of older people.

“They are not a Treasury contingency fund. They should not be expected to surrender the security of their State Pension whenever Westminster decides it needs another pot of money. The triple lock represents barely 10% of the total pension budget, and should be set alongside the £60 billion that over 60s contribute to the economy through work, voluntary efforts, and unpaid caring. And of course, additionally, by their taxes.

“The Prime Minister needs to give pensioners a straight answer: is the triple lock safe beyond the next election or isn’t it? Millions of older people planning their futures have a right to know.”

The triple lock currently requires the basic and new State Pension to rise each year by the highest of earnings growth, inflation or 2.5%. Ever since Thatcher broke the link between pensions and average income, older people have seen their income fall in real terms year on year. For many pensioners the Triple Lock is the mechanism which prevents the value of an already modest State Pension from falling even further behind while other incomes and the cost-of-living rise. Official Scottish Government figures estimate that around 130,000 pensioners in Scotland, around 13 per cent, were living in relative poverty after housing costs in the 2022-25 period.

Ms. Jackson continued:

“There is a deeply misleading popular belief that pensioners are universally comfortable, asset-rich and somehow protected from the cost-of-living pressures everyone else is facing. Tell that to the older Scot rationing their heating or the pensioner watching every penny in the supermarket.

“The triple lock is not the reason Britain has difficult choices to make about public spending, and pensioners should not be turned into the convenient answer to every difficult question facing the Treasury.”

The organisation also warned that the debate raises fundamental questions for Scotland.

State Pension policy is reserved to Westminster, meaning any weakening of the triple lock would affect pensioners across Scotland. Social care, however, is devolved, and Scotland has its own care system, including longstanding provision for free personal and nursing care for those who need it.

There must be no question of Scottish pensioners taking a UK-wide hit to their retirement incomes without absolute clarity about where the money goes and how Scotland is treated.

“Social care desperately needs sustainable funding. Older people know that better than almost anyone else because many live with the failures of the care system every day. But presenting this as a choice between a decent state pension and decent care would be a false and deeply damaging argument. A civilised society should be capable of providing both.

If the Government wants a serious national debate about the future of pensions, then have one by putting the figures on the table and publishing the consequences.

Pensioners deserve much more than finding out that the value of their state pension has become the bill-payer for yet another policy.