Should the triple lock be scrapped in the 6 March Budget?

Ganga

I wonder how many of the " Scrap it vote " have the SP as their only income ,not many i doubt . 

njkmr

No it should be kept

How about matching it to Spain's pension .
I believe thats about £25000 per year.
No that im near drawing it yet unfortunately.

eskbanker

BlackKnightMonty said:

eskbanker said:

BlackKnightMonty said:
Should the triple lock be scrapped in the 6 March Budget?

As above, what alternative options are you proposing, and on what grounds?

I think linking it / limiting it to worker’s average pay rise would make a great deal of sense.

But 'make a great deal of sense' because....?  It's already linked to the average earnings increase anyway, so perhaps your poll options should be more like:

1. Keep it as is
2. Drop the 2.5% to leave earnings and CPI
3. Just earnings
4. Just CPI
5. or various other permutations of the above?

MattMattMattUK

Yes it should be scrapped

njkmr said:

How about matching it to Spain's pension .
I believe thats about £25000 per year.
No that im near drawing it yet unfortunately.

Probably just about affordable if we had Spanish levels of taxation, 10% VAT on food, no tax free allowance for income tax (tax paid from the first Euro earned), higher property taxes than UK council tax etc. 

People in the UK seem to want all the nice benefits but seem to have an extreme reluctance to actually pay for them first. 

enthusiasticsaver

Yes it should be scrapped

There is an article in the telegraph today about whether this is affordable given that all of us baby boomers (I am 64)  are close to or already retired, the birth rate is falling and those of us who are economically inactive (early retirees or those above state pension age) is rising.  Apparently life expectancy is also falling so raising the state retirement age again is not going to be an option. So effectively there will be less workers and more retirees. 

I am not yet receiving my state pension but have voted the triple lock should go given that I think it is unaffordable. I think it should be linked to average earnings/CPI and the 2.5% promise should be scrapped. I acknowledge though that state pension is not our  main income in retirement. Sunak has said it will stay though so I don't think it will go in this years budget given it is an election year. 

enthusiasticsaver

Yes it should be scrapped

njkmr said:

How about matching it to Spain's pension .
I believe thats about £25000 per year.
No that im near drawing it yet unfortunately.

Apparently the average state pension in Spain is 900 euros a month so way off £25k.  They have similar system to us with a three pillar system. The state pension where you have to work until 65 or 67 I think for a minimum of 35 years to get full pension.  Employees pay in about 5% and their employers 24% of their income.  It is topped up by private or occupational pensions like here and then there is a nominal low income/minimum pension for non earners similar to pension credit here I guess. The only way you can get £25k is to have a state pension and a private one which is more or less the same as the UK. 

sgx2000

No it should be kept

Uk already the worst pension in  Europe.....

The_Green_Hornet

No it should be kept

The State Pension Triple Lock was one of only a small handful of policies that all the major political parties agreed upon at the last general election so no it won't be scrapped on 6th March nor should it as it is a manifesto commitment.

However, it will be interesting to see what are in the manifestos for the upcoming general election.

MattMattMattUK

Yes it should be scrapped

sgx2000 said:

Uk already the worst pension in  Europe.....

The bottom two thirds of earners in the UK pay the lowest rate of income taxation in the EU, I wonder if there is a connection...

MattMattMattUK

Yes it should be scrapped

The_Green_Hornet said:

The State Pension Triple Lock was one of only a small handful of policies that all the major political parties agreed upon at the last general election so no it won't be scrapped on 6th March nor should it as it is a manifesto commitment.

However, it will be interesting to see what are in the manifestos for the upcoming general election.

I have just looked at the Conservative manifesto at the 2019 election. The Conservatives have broken considerably more than half of their 2019 manifesto commitments I fail to see how breaking one more would make any real difference, especially as changing it to a dual lock (dropping the 2.5%) would make it far more economically literate than the current unfunded bodge.