Britain’s biggest pensioner organisation, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) has criticised remarks made today by Iain Duncan Smith on the Andrew Marr programme, regarding the triple lock on the state pension.
Dot Gibson, NPC general secretary said: “Iain Duncan Smith has criticised the triple lock on the state pension without any evidence to back up his claim. In fact, in the last five years, the triple lock has only been higher than it would have been under the old system that was in place prior to 2010, on just one occasion. And the difference it made was just 12p more a week.
“It’s absolute nonsense to claim that this is either generous or that taking it away from pensioners would in anyway undo the damage already done by the government’s austerity measures. Despite the claims, the UK’s state pension is regarded as one of the least adequate in the developed world; standing at just £115 a week and we have over six million pensioners living on less than £11,000 a year.
The rich, whether young or old, do need to pay more in tax – but attacking the triple lock is just a smokescreen to cover up the fact that the Budget has helped wealthier individuals at the expense of some of our most vulnerable members of society.”
