DWP former pension minister warns triple lock could soon vanish

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A former pensions minister has issued a warning over the state pension triple lock, accepting it's "not perfect". The triple lock helps to ensure that the State Pension rises at the start of each tax year in line with Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation, the average rise in total wages from May to June the previous year, or 2.5 per cent - whichever is the highest.

While this can work to the benefit of State Pension claimants, Sir Steve Webb, who signed off the triple lock in 2010 during his time as pensions minister, warned that the policy could be replaced for another system that might not be as beneficial for claimants.

The future of the triple lock system has recently come under fresh scrutiny, with Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch indicating that her party could pledge to means-test the guaranteed uprate and Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride remarking last month that the triple lock was "unsustainable".

Meanwhile, Labour's new pension Minister, Torsten Bell, previously spoke in favour of scrapping the system in 2020 when he was chief executive of think tank The Resolution Foundation.