This is a worrying alternative to Burnham’s reform, in our Pension Minister’s opinion
This is exactly what I said was their plan earlier today – she just gets the credit for spelling it out torstenbell.substack.com/p/the-future…
— Torsten Bell (@torstenbell.bsky.social) October 2, 2026 at 9:36 PM
Torsten Bell has not been very noisy about pension since he became Pensions Minister , at least not on social media. But last week he broke his temperance to swing in behind the state pension
Whether he was the architect of the reformed triple lock we don’t yet now but it has a remarkable similarity to ideas that have been floating around in the IFS and Resolution and he certainly seems confident about how it will actually work (more than most of those on social media!)
We’re honouring our promise, keeping the Triple Lock for the rest of this Parliament. The full new State Pension will rise by £2,000+, reaching a record high relative to earnings by 2029/30. This will see the permanent reversal of Thatcher’s decoupling of the SP from wages. pic.twitter.com/mwduSyKtOv
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) October 2, 2026
There is a lot in the Sub stack link but I’ll pick up on the question that Steve Webb and Andy Young picked up on minutes up after the announcement.
I am pleased we have this proposal and though it will need continuity between this Government and the next , I hope that there will be cross party support for change. This radical change to the state pension should take us a someway towards social care being affordable enough to be on the NHS.
It is a shame that one of my good pension friends has so lost confidence in the development of pension policy. I hope that he will step away from the path that he is on!
Torsten Bell wants control of our pensions. We must stop him https://t.co/QvcpXKyMIZ
— Tom McPhail (@PensionsMonkey) March 19, 2026
This adds to a blaze of incoherent assaults on our pension minister which don’t do any good.
One can only hope that one day, people like @TorstenBell and his Marxist friends suffer old age with deprivation and hardship, so that they are forced to reflect on the errors of their warped and vindictive ideology.
— Nigel Bennett (@top1percentile) October 2, 2026
We were lucky to keep Torsten Bell as Pension Minister when Andy Burnham became prime minister. The Pension Schemes Act, the ongoing development of CDC and now the reform of the state pension and of long term care are an achievement in two years.
We are seeing an unfortunate tendency among those on the right wing and I hope it comes to nothing.
