London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Triple lock pension pledge suspended for one year

Triple lock pension pledge suspended for one year

The government has confirmed a one-year suspension of the "triple lock" formula for annual state pension increases.

The move follows government concern that a big post-pandemic rise in average earnings would have meant pensions increasing by 8%.

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said the average earnings component would be disregarded in the 2022-23 financial year.

Instead, the rise will be the consumer inflation rate or 2.5%.

"Tomorrow, I will introduce a Social Security Uprating and Benefits Bill for 2022-23 only," she told the Commons.

"It will ensure the basic and new state pensions increase by 2.5% or in line with inflation, which is expected to be the higher figure this year, and as happened last year, it will again set aside the earnings element for 2022-23 before being restored for the remainder of this Parliament."

Ms Coffey said the figures had been "skewed and distorted" by the average earnings rise, which she described as a "statistical anomaly".

She said the change meant that pensions would still rise, but less quickly. The triple lock would return the following year, she added.

Unusual change


Under the triple lock, pensions increase by inflation, the increase in earnings between May and July or 2.5%, whichever is the greater.

The Work and Pensions secretary said she was "anticipating an unusual change in earnings" due to the pandemic.

She added that earnings between May and July were expected to rise by more than 8%, so a one-year adjustment was needed.

Last month, the Bank of England said it was expecting inflation to peak at 4%.

The Conservatives promised in their 2019 election manifesto to maintain the triple lock formula.

Ms Coffey's announcement came just hours after Prime Minister Boris Johnson breached another manifesto commitment by increasing National Insurance to fund health and social care.

Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams said: "If suspending the triple lock for a single year helps get a government deal on social care over the line, then I believe it's a price worth paying, but only if it really is just a one-off measure and not a sneaky way for ministers to ditch the triple lock altogether."

Ms Abrahams said that with more than two million pensioners currently living in poverty, there was "a strong case" for keeping the triple lock untouched.

She added that it was "imperative that the triple lock reverts to normal next year, to help all those pensioners on low and modest incomes who desperately need it".


The one-year break in the usual calculations for increases in the state pension was widely expected.

There is, after all, near-universal agreement that the average annual earnings rise (one leg of the so-called triple lock) will be an anomaly caused by the economic effect of Covid.

Charities representing the elderly will hold the government to its commitment that this is just a temporary arrangement.

Their fear is that the government might be tempted to do the same again - potentially reducing rises in a state pension which is already low when compared with elsewhere in the Western world.

Others will consider this as a missed opportunity to reform the universal triple lock system, even though its existence is a Conservative manifesto promise for the rest of this Parliament.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
×