Liz Truss tells LBC’s @HenryRiley1 that the retirement age needs to be raised and the sustainability of the triple lock is a ‘huge problem’.
She also confirms that she will attend the Conservative conference next month and ‘will be saying more’. pic.twitter.com/3GbQz3ifGV
— LBC (@LBC) September 18, 2023
They will also be pleased to know that her version of fantasy pensions has the state pension age vanishing over the boomer’s horizon.
In the unlikely event of Liz Truss returning to power..
We may not need pensions if Liz gets her way, she has a vision for Britain which Mark Carney has characterised as “Argentina by the Channel”.
This could result in a bit of reverse immigration (emigration?) as impoverished Brits flee to France on paddleboards, hoping to escape the ravages of a country unable to pay its bills.
Pensioners could become a breed of the past as those over 80 fall like flies as they queue for food banks and those under 80 work in geriatric gulags boosting Britain’s ailing productivity.
Joking aside
Growth is not a dirty word. For Britain to pay its state and public pensions as we expect to, we need growth in our gross domestic product (it’s what the Scape rate is based on). Without growth, employers, public sector workers have to pay more for public sector pensions. It’s to compensate for lower than expected tax revenues from lower than expected productivity.
Private sector pensions also rely on a strong economy, they are broadly backed by Government debt (gilts) which needs to be serviced and repaid if our DB schemes are to remain solvent. There is a symbiotic relationship between pensions and our national economy, both need to prosper. Pensions mustn’t be seen as part of the problem but as part of the solution.
The Mansion House reforms aren’t a ruse to get the City’s hands on our pension, they are about reconnecting our pension funds with what drives that growth – capital for investment.
Truss now sees pensions as unaffordable and that’s ironic because half a trillion pounds of our national wealth has gone to pay off banks for the money pension funds borrowed. Truss’ argument that pensions aren’t affordable is down to her actions. Truss is talking down pensions and that’s no joke.
Pensions become affordable when we have growth but that growth has yet to happen. Growth happens with capital, our capital. We haven’t seen pensions contributing much to the UK’s economic growth recently; but given a fair wind and a change of mindset within the pension industry, we might avoid Britain becoming Argentina on the channel. We might have a decent society that pays its pensioners a proper wage in retirement.
Truss – never again