Sunak pledges to keep to pension triple lock despite signs of extra £10bn cost https://t.co/8Vh2DuqzBL Quite right too

— Henry Tapper (@henryhtapper) August 17, 2023

I appear to be the only pension person who seems to be happy about pensioners and yet to be pensioners , getting a proper pension increase in retirement.

If you click through to the Guardian article, you can find a chorus of disapproval from various life company and wealth management spokespeople.

“Honoring the triple lock appears to be an electoral bribe and the policy is bound to be ditched once a new Government arrives”

That’s the view from the private sector. Here’s what the Guardian is reporting

Sunak gave no hint that the government was preparing to abandon the triple lock despite warnings from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) of its mounting cost.

He said: “Now there is a statutory, a legal, process for determining the increase in pensions and benefits that happens in the autumn and that’s where those final decisions are made.”

Labour supports keeping the triple lock, with a senior party source saying it was supported as a policy and the government should maintain it.

So we have the unedifying sight of the private pensions industry asking for less state pension, asking for Government to break its promises in the interests of prudent fiscal policy.

How good a look is this?

The same fiscally prudent nay-sayers to the triple-lock are lobbying tooth and nail for every penny of tax-relief they can get for their well-heeled clients.

Really?

Pensioners may be better off than they were, but they face immense problems in later life to do with physical and cognitive decline.

We seem determined to do down the triple-lock which is slowly turning the state pension into something to be proud of.

We should be ashamed of ourselves.

Let’s applaud the politicians for (with one year’s blip) keeping true to their promises. Let’s not embarrass ourselves further for arguing against the financial security we profess to promote.