What OAP pension has not been increased since it's introduction in 1971

DerekPrestatyn

I will be 80 next month and had a notification that I will have an increase of 25p per week from the DWP.
On investigation I found it was introduced in 1971 for people reaching the age of 80, but it hasn't been increased since. Taking inflation into account it should be at least £3.55p Why has it been ignored for so long?

TVAS

Because you have the triple lock:

A triple lock was introduced to the UK state pension in 2010. It was a guarantee that the state pension would not lose value in real terms, and that it would increase at least in line with inflation. To make the guarantee even more secure, it included three separate measures of inflation (hence ‘triple lock’).

The three-way guarantee was that each year, the state pension would increase by the greatest of the following three measures:

• Average earnings
• Prices, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)
• 2.5 per cent

In other words, if average earnings were to increase by 3 per cent, the state pension would also increase by 3 per cent. But neither average earnings nor the CPI increase by more than 2.5 per cent, the state pension still rises by 2.5 per cent.

Thus if wage growth and price growth remain low, the state pension increases actually beat inflation – as has happened a lot in the years since the triple lock was put in place.

Why don't you ask your MP your question. You also get the £200 winter fuel allowance each year and a free bus pass both are worth more than the 25p a week over 80s pension. You are getting higher pension increases at the expense of the working poor who get benefits, and public sector pay rises hence the 40,000 nursing vacancies. 

JoeCrystal

You might ask the same thing about the Christmas Bonus of £10! 

Malthusian

Because the "triple lock" means all State Pensioners have had above-inflation increases for yonks. There is no case for increasing the additional amount for the over 80s on top of that.

The 25p increase for over 80s is virtually pointless, but abolishing it or phasing it out would result in far more bad press for the Government than it's worth.

(The easiest way for the Government to achieve that would be to have absorbed the 25p bonus into the triple lock, in a similar way to how they phased out the age-related personal tax allowances. But too late now.)

Costs generally decrease as you age, not increase. (Until care costs come into play, which the State Pension isn't designed to cover.) I'm aware of the argument that people of more advanced age need to spend more on heating, but don't buy there's something special that happens to your heating needs at age 80.

IvanOpinion

Like many things it probably costs more to administer than it gives value to the recipients.

soulsaver

It is about time that the 'allowable' £3600 pension contribution for non earners was increased though. How long has that been running with zero increase?

Snowball in hell atm I'd guess.

(eta spacing)

Moe_The_Bartender

JoeCrystal said:

You might ask the same thing about the Christmas Bonus of £10! 

That was a Harold Wilson gimmick, I think.