https://news.sky.com/story/tories-wi...-says-13290398
Quote:
Kemi Badenoch has said the Conservatives will consider means-testing the pensions triple lock.
The Tory leader said her party would "look at means-testing" the system which guarantees that the state pension rises in line with average earnings, inflation or 2.5% - whichever is highest.
The Conservatives have long championed the triple lock - introduced by former chancellor George Osborne during the coalition government - but some senior Conservatives have recently hinted that it might not be sustainable in the long term.
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They won't do it hence the 'look at' part of the statement but means-testing the state pension is an insane idea. It disincentives private pension saving which the last Government took steps to encourage. Why should someone sacrifice part of their monthly salary if that's counted against them regarding their state pension?
What they should do is look at removing the part of the triple-lock that links it to wage growth. That's unsustainable because it means the tax base to fund the pension is always growing slower than the state pension itself. It makes sense to link to inflation because you don't want to erode in value over time but the link to wages means that when inflation is slow the cost of pensions to the state will forever increase.
A sensible economy would have a generous enough state pension that means pensioners aren't destitute with a good chunk of them having additional income they built up over their working lives but the average earnings of workers should be higher than that state pension.