State pension news: Triple Lock set to be scrapped NEXT YEAR - 'Younger people can't keep funding the old'

Pressure is being ramped up on the Government to scrap the state pension triple lock over increasing costs.

The key Conservative manifesto pledge promises to up the state pension every April on par with the highest of the previous September’s inflation, wage growth or 2.5pc.

New weekly state pension payments will rise to £203.85 – equivalent to £10,600.20 per year from April.

And for those who reached the state pension age before 2016, the basic state pension will increase to £156.20 per week or £8,122.40 annually.

The state pension is set to rise again in April
Yui Mok

The policy has raised a growing debate about the expense which is expected to cost the Government an addition £11billion next year according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies think tank.

And now, Angus Hanton, from the Intergenerational Foundation has suggested the Government could ditch the policy before the next election.

He said that with an upcoming election in early 2024 or early 2025, tweaks to the policy could be announced sooner rather than later to avoid the voting period.

Mr Hanton added that the state pension should be targeted for vulnerable pensioners on low income.

He said: “It seems wrong that the state pension goes to older, wealthier people. This generation is made up of ex-private sector workers who have enjoyed generous defined benefit pensions, and ex-civil servants who have enjoyed much more lavish pensions than expected.

“It is deeply unfair that younger, working people are expected to fund this older generation’s state pension on top of that.”

Inflation is expected to average at 9pc in Britain over the next year according to The International Monetary Fund, which as a result could cause the Government to spend billions more on state pension payments.

Critics of the scheme have suggested a “smoothing" process so that state pension increases by average of inflation, wage growth and 2.5pc rather than the highest of the three.

Critics have suggested a "smoothing" process to reduce spending on state pension
Gareth Fuller

It comes after former Chancellor Philip Hammond challenged the sustainability of the triple lock in November.

He told GB News at the time: “Is it really right that we should always up the rate by the highest of wages, prices or by 2.5pc? I think that is quite difficult to justify, and not all pensioners are poor.

“So I think there is a case for looking again at the way we treat pensioners, and possibly for distinguishing the poorest pensioners from the great body of pensioners, some of whom are really quite comfortably off.”