The chamber chose protection over retrenchment. No won, with 330 votes to Yes’s 253, and the arguments attracting the most respect were not evasive about the pressure on the public finances so much as unwilling to make pensions the first sacrifice.
The floor’s most-respected No case put the principle bluntly: “The triple lock is there to protect against inflation.” Another argued that “Balancing the books on the backs of retirees every time global markets wobble is wrong”, framing the issue as a question of trust and the state pension’s low starting point rather than a response to one bout of expensive borrowing.
Yes had a more developed fiscal critique than the result might suggest. Its strongest argument called the policy “a fiscally unsustainable policy that depends on whichever of three volatile measures might spike in any one year”, while another warned that “Young people will be paying directly for young people’s pension increases”. But the two sides largely talked past each other: Yes argued affordability, ageing and intergenerational burden; No answered with adequacy, promises already made and the fear that “Find the billions in hotels, standing aid and schemes” should come before touching the pension.
The debate also resisted a simple defence of every aspect of the lock. Several No voters wanted better-off pensioners to pay more tax or lose eligibility, while Yes voices proposed inflation-only or smoothed earnings links and means-tested support. That leaves the chamber opposed less to reform in principle than to the idea that a squeeze prompted by bond markets should begin with the universal pension floor.
The room’s verdict was a refusal to turn a fiscal shock into a pensioner penalty — and a demand that any replacement first answer the question of what a decent old age is worth.
42 Opinions
The triple lock is there to protect against inflation. Control inflation and you control the cost of pensions. Blaming the triple lock is just taking the easy route and is terrible political optics of kicking the most vulnerable because you're too lazy and stupid to do anything more complicated like controlling inflation.
UK Pensions are among the lowest in Europe- this is what the triple lock was for. The current rhetoric about pensions, PIP, benefits in general is a distraction from the growing inequality in the UK, the handing of subsidies to businesses, the rampages of private equity & privatisation, and the failure of HRMC to collect billions in tax. The pension is not why we are broke, it because profit is taken out of the country by tax avoiders and foreign buy outs of our assets.
Balancing the books on the backs of retirees every time global markets wobble is wrong. Britain’s state pension is already one of the lowest in the developed world
It is vital to correct generational unfairness, but not by attacking the poorest. The State Pension is very low and we should be looking to improve it over the long term. But older people with comfortable incomes should pay higher rates of tax.
Keep the triple lock, the UK still has the lowest pensions in Europe. There will always be elderly people, and the older you get, the more help you need, as well as a good quality of life, not a luxurious one, I'm sure some think that all elderly live in the lap of luxury, Many have lived hand to mouth bringing up a family, working all hours. Stopping it won't help, the cost of a care home will cost far more than keeping the triple lock. Pensioners do pay tax.
Retirees have spent a lifetime paying tax and NI already. They should not be penalised in old age to subsidise failed economic policies of the twits in charge of our economy. Retirees with pensions that fall into taxation brackets are already taxed on their pensions anyway if high enough. Except Keir Starmer who created a special exception for his own pension to be tax free!
Pensions increased £241 a week!! How is anyone able to live on that?! Our pensioners deserve better….if the triple lock is scrapped our poor old folk will fall even further below the poverty line
These Ponzi scams are running way too long. On the other hand UK pensions are the least generous in G7. We definitely have to change funding model, but average pensioner lives is already difficult..
It was a pledge and UK state Pensions are quite low compared to other countries. There is an argument to be had at the next election but until then stick with the pledge
The triple lock should be scrapped, not because of the "recent surge in bond yields" but because it's a fiscally unsustainable policy that depends on whichever of three volatile measures might spike in any one year. This has meant that pensioner incomes have grown three times faster than average earnings over the last two decades. A better alternative would be a "smoothed earnings" link which would track earnings but give some protection against inflation shocks.