Pensions - Articles - Welcome news on triple lock

 “Nine years of ‘triple lock catch up’ by 2020 will be a very valuable boost to pensioners, but clearly, the more its value, the greater its cost to the government and taxpayers. Considerations around state pension increases should be reviewed every 5 years on affordability grounds, and to make sure the government is allocating finite resources fairly between generations.

 “However, the Chancellor’s mention of growing longevity and the need to assess pensioner support for this growing elderly population did not go unnoticed. We await further details on ‘budget balancing’ plans to further increase state pension age, but we also need to give people flexibility to access their state pension earlier at a reduced level.

 “Growing longevity with longer periods in poor health also need urgent government attention to avoid an impending care crisis. Pension policy needs to be reviewed to allow people to prepare to cover their long term care costs, however much they’d prefer not to think of this eventuality.”