Politics Home Article | Tony Blair Think Tank Calls For Scrapping The Triple Lock
(Alamy) 3 min read1 hr The Tony Blair Institute (TBI) think tank has called for the government to scrap the “unaffordable” triple lock on state pensions. In a new report published on Friday, the think tank said current pensions policy is unsustainable and outdated and should be replaced by a more flexible alternative. “Britain’s state pension system was built for a different era. We can’t keep pouring money into a system that is increasingly unaffordable,” said Tom Smith, TBI Director of Economic Policy. Under the existing policy, pensions are guaranteed to rise by the highest of inflation, average earnings and 2.5 per cent. However, there have been growing warnings that factors like people living longer, a falling birth rate and high inflation levels mean that it is not sustainable in the long term. The TBI report points to the number of pensioners in Britain being expected to rise from 12.6m this year to 19m in 2070, with spending on the state pension expected to increase from 5 per cent of GDP to 7.5 per cent, costing the Treasury an …
