There is nothing fair about taking away triple lock

THE CAMPAIGN against the triple lock has stepped up with a vengeance and its future is now in serious doubt.

- Sam Lister Associate Editor

It has become a symbol of all that is wrong with the country for a certain type of influential politico.

Guaranteeing older people a decent annual rise in their state pension is now deemed to be an act of “intergenerational unfairness”. Young people are struggling so their answer is to make pensioners poorer.

It is interesting that when this group argues for fairness, it always concludes that pensioners are the problem. Is it really fair to take cash off older people when we are spending £6billion a year on universal credit payments for foreign nationals? Ending benefits payments to the 1.3 million people who have barely, if at all, contributed to the system would surely be fairer than snatching cash off those who have spent five decades doing just that.

The true bill for those who have been granted indefinite leave to remain is likely to be far higher still, as it does not factor in housing, disability or child benefit payments.

Figures for the cost of the triple lock vary depending on whether it rises by inflation, wage rises or 2.5%, but last year it was estimated at around £9billion. The costs will fall as wages and inflation (hopefully) finally stabilise, but the benefits bill for migrants will not.