Pensioners from the National Pensioners Convention protested outside Westminster today demanding the retention of the “triple lock” guarantee on state pension rises and warning against cuts in social care.
Former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith recently said that the “triple lock” safeguard, which prevents pensions from falling in value, should be scrapped to help ease cuts to working age benefits.
He said it was important to cut the safeguard in order to tackle the “misbalance between the generations” by reining in “out-of-control” spending on pensions.
Former pensions minister Baroness Altmann has also argued that the triple lock policy has “outlived its purpose” and should be abandoned from 2020.
In an interview earlier this year she said: “The triple lock is a political construct, a totemic policy that is easy for politicians to trumpet, but from a pure policy perspective keeping it forever doesn’t make sense.”