LONDON, June 21 (Reuters) – Britain’s business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said on Monday he was “pretty sure” the so-called ‘triple lock’ system for increasing state pensions would not be changed to pay for the cost of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
British newspapers have suggested that the government was looking at suspending the ‘triple lock’ promise of increasing pensions by whichever is higher of consumer price inflation, average earnings growth, or 2.5%.
Due partly to distortions from the coronavirus pandemic, annual wages in the three months to April grew by an annual 5.6% – creating an extra 4 billion pound ($5.5 billion) annual cost for future pensions. read more
“Lots of things have been discussed in government, I don’t think that that’s necessarily the way forward,” Kwarteng told Sky News when asked if the ‘triple lock’ would be put on hold. “I’m pretty sure the triple lock will stay.”
The promise to maintain the system for increasing pensions was in the Conservative government’s manifesto of pledges ahead of the 2019 election, something to which Kwarteng alluded.
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“I don’t think the triple lock is under any threat at all,” he told Times radio in a later interview.
“It was part of our manifestos remember. It’s been something we’ve been committed to for a number of years now and I haven’t seen anything which suggests that we’re going to undo it.”
Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; writing by Michael Holden; editing by Alistair Smout
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