Time called on the pensioners "privileges"

After attacking the unemployed and the sick, it is now time for the pensioners to suffer austerity. A report by the Work and Pensions Committee states that the triple-lock pension policy, which guarantees pensions increase annually by either average wages, inflation, or 2.5 per cent – whichever is highest, is “inherently unsustainable.” 

Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said: “Whilst the report makes it clear that no single generation has stolen the future of their successors, there is little doubt that today’s pensioners are still being blamed for the problems faced by today’s younger generation. This phoney conflict is being used as a smokescreen in order to cut back on the welfare state. The housing crisis hasn’t been caused by pensioners, but because in Britain we sold off council houses, we haven’t been building enough affordable homes. Wages and employment are low and insecure and an economy built on house-price inflation simply cannot be sustained. This is what needs to be addressed.”

Steve Webb, a former pensions minister who is now director of policy at Royal London, said the triple lock was created to reverse “30 years of decline in the value of the state pension. That job is not yet done. The UK still has one of the lowest state pensions in Europe.”