Reform is facing questions over its support for the pensions triple lock today after its two most senior politicians offered different views of its future.
Robert Jenrick dropped a major hint that the party would keep the lock that allows for ever increasing payouts to pensioners if it wins power
Answering qustions after a London speech the Treasury spokesman said he had ‘aways been a fan’ of the lock, which guarantees the state pension rises each year in line with the highest out of average earnings growth, Consumer Prices Index (CPI) inflation, or 2.5 per cent.
In response to a question from the Daily Mail he said the policy would be set out in the coming days, but added: ‘It is incredibly important that we provide dignity and security to older people on fixed incomes in the last decades of their life, particularly in a time like this where there are such challenging circumstances with the cost of living.
However, after he made the remarks, party leader Nigel Farage told the Sun: ‘I haven’t changed my mind about the triple lock. It is still up for debate. Everything is up for debate.’
Last November, after the Budget, Mr Farage said his party was ‘not going to guarantee anything’ to pensioner snow and ‘we’ll have to see what the economics of this are like nearer the next election’.
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) found last year that, due to inflation and earnings volatility, the triple lock has cost around three times more than initial expectations.
Uprating using the triple lock rather than earnings alone will have added £15.5 billion to the state pension bill annually by the end of the decade (2029-30), the budget watchdog estimated.
Robert Jenrick dropped a major hint that the party would keep the lock that allows for ever increasing payouts to pensioners if it wins power
However, after he made the remarks, party leader Nigel Farage said the future of the system was still up for debate.
