Labour Party pensions policy: We will keep the pension triple lock and give pensioners security in retirement

Photo of Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves stood outside of a sweet shop, holding takeaway coffee cups and speaking to two women with their backs to the camera

Labour will protect the triple lock on pensions and increase the state pension each year in line with inflation, average earnings, or by 2.5 per cent, whichever is higher.

We will support pensioners and give them the dignity and security they deserve in retirement. All our plans are fully funded, and we will introduce tough spending roles to keep mortgages, inflation and taxes as low as possible. Delivering economic stability is our first step for change.

We will cut energy bills for good with Great British Energy, a publicly owned energy company, and insulate millions of cold, draughty homes. We will cut NHS waiting lists, with 40,000 appointments each week, paid for by cracking down on tax avoidance and non-doms.

How the Tories have hit pensioners with a tax bombshell

Rishi Sunak has failed pensioners.

Over the last 14 years, pensioners have paid a heavy price for Tory failure. A crashed economy, plummeting living standards, health and social care on its knees, rising crime and the highest tax burden in 70 years. 

Record numbers are now paying income tax, with stealth tax rises announced by Sunak set to hammer eight million pensioners with an average rise of £1,000.

Even with their latest unfunded pledge, the Tories are still taking £3 from pensioners and expect them to be thankful for getting £1 back.

There are 300,000 more pensioners living in poverty under the Tories. The last Labour Government lifted over a million pensioners out of poverty.

The Tories’ £71 billion worth of unfunded spending commitments also threatens the future of the State Pension. They have refused to answer how the State Pension will be funded if they achieve their ambition of abolishing National Insurance Contributions.

If the cost of the Tories’ black hole was fully met by raising Income Tax, an average pensioner could be paying hundreds of pounds more in tax.

The economic failure of Rishi Sunak is leaving pensioners across the country worse off.

How Labour will support pensioners

Labour will turn the page on Tory chaos with economic security and political stability.

A Labour government will protect the triple lock on pensions and review the current state of the pensions and retirement savings landscape, to check if the current framework can deliver sustainable retirement incomes for people. 

We will also give the Pensions Regulator new powers to intervene where schemes fail to offer sufficient value for their members. 

Liz Kendall, Labour’s Shadow Pensions Secretary has said: “Retirement should be a time we all look forward to, but more pensioners than ever are renting into retirement, their children are returning home because they’re locked out of the housing market and soaring childcare costs mean pensioners are taking on more responsibilities they weren’t expecting.

“My message to pensioners at this general election is simple – look at your wallet, look at the quality of your healthcare and look at the lack of housing for your children and grandchildren and ask yourself, is this as good as it gets?”