There was some good news yesterday for Britain’s 12million senior citizens.
The state pension is set to rise in line with double-digit inflation.
The Telegraph reports that the Treasury on Tuesday confirmed that the pension “triple lock” will be reinstated after it was put on pause during the pandemic - taking the annual payout for retirees beyond £10,000 for the first time.
Around six million people will also see their benefits rise in line with inflation.
The two decisions will cost taxpayers as much as £20billion.
However, Downing Street has insisted that the working population should accept pay rises below inflation which is expected to hit 11% this year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday stressed the need for “fiscal discipline” as they put on a united front in a private meeting of the Cabinet.
Struggle to explain
But Number 10 figures struggled to explain why allowing pay to rise in line with prices would be inflationary if letting the state pension and benefits do so is not.
The triple lock ensures state pensions rise by the highest of inflation, average wages or 2.5% each year. This year it is all but certain that inflation will be the highest of those three.
The state pension and Universal Credit will both rise by the inflation figure in September.
The UK Government announced at the end of last year that the state pension was to rise by 3.1% in 2022 - far short of what many retired people had been hoping for.
Senior citizens had anticipated an 8% increase due to a big leap in average earnings in the country due to Covid-19.
But it emerged last September there was to be a one-year suspension of the state pension’s triple-lock formula used by the Government.
Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey revealed then that the average wages component would be disregarded in the 2022-23 financial year.
Statistical anomaly
She said the figures had been "skewed and distorted" by the average wages rise, which she described as a "statistical anomaly".
The Conservatives had promised in their 2019 election manifesto to maintain the triple-lock formula.
Age UK said last year that, if suspending the triple lock for a single year helped to get a Government deal on social care over the line then it was a price worth paying, but only if it really was just a one-off measure and not a "sneaky" way for Ministers to ditch the triple lock altogether.
The charity added: "With more than two million pensioners currently living in poverty, there's a strong case for keeping the triple lock as it is."