Tories WILL cut pensions – the only question is WHEN they’ll do it
![Ros Altmann had said Theresa May could be more open to removing triple-lock protection for pensions than David Cameron [Image: Jonathan Brady/PA].](https://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/160801-Ros-Altmann.png)
Ros Altmann had said Theresa May could be more open to removing triple-lock protection for pensions than David Cameron [Image: Jonathan Brady/PA].
It seems likely that Ros Altmann’s comments were made to put the idea into the public domain and see how people take to it.
The Tories have had a lot of success in claiming services are “unaffordable” – despite most of their claims being lies, or based on variable conditions (everything they have cut would have been affordable if they had not also been determined to cut taxes for the very rich; there is also the issue of whether they want the country at large to have benefits that are enjoyed by the rich).
For now, pensioners are on notice: They are on the Tory list, and 2020 isn’t very far away.
As Labour’s Debbie Abrahams said yesterday: “Just months ago the Tories went to the country on a solemn promise to protect pensioners, saying their ‘triple lock’ was guaranteed, that people could trust them, now we hear they’re considering dumping it.
“Make no mistake, this would be a grand betrayal – a shocking broken promise hitting pensioners in the pocket.
“The lesson here is that for all their words about doing the right thing, the Tories don’t stand up for ordinary people.”
Downing Street has promised that Theresa May will stick to the Tory manifesto pledge of the triple lock, which guarantees rises in the state pension, after a former pensions minister said it would become unaffordable after 2020.
Ros Altmann, who left the government in July, called for the mechanism to be abolished and suggested that the prime minister could be more open to this idea than her predecessor, David Cameron.
A No 10 spokeswoman quickly dismissed the possibility of there being any risk to the triple lock before the next general election. “The manifesto contains a commitment to protect the triple lock. That commitment still stands,” she said.
Lady Altmann had warned that the cost of keeping the safeguard would be “enormous” after the election in 2020.
The Conservative peer and pensions expert said she tried last year to persuade Cameron to drop the triple lock, under which pensions go up by the inflation rate, the growth in average earnings or 2.5%, whichever is the highest.
“The triple lock is a political construct, a totemic policy that is easy for politicians to trumpet, but from a pure policy perspective, keeping it for ever doesn’t make sense,” Altmann told the Observer.
Source: No scrapping of triple-lock pension protection before 2020, says No 10 | Money | The Guardian
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No surprise there then.
You know don’t you. Leopards don’t change their spots. They penny pinch but when it comes to the Cambridgeshire Uniting Care £25m scandal money disappeared, and the Cambridgeshire “Baker Small” the “terminator” lawyer chum firm scandal hired to crush the vulnerable, then its just lessons have to be learned.But the agenda is still there.
2 and half percent is nothing on a basic pension and only a wicked person or persons would stoop that low to cut it
Tories will cut pensions
That should “please” the Tory-voting blue-rinse brigade!
That look down on the jobless, with their
“I worked all my life” mantra.
Even though the loss of industry et al
caused unemployment we never recovered from.
Suffice to say: they were too thick to realise that the Tories would go after them eventually.
I’m not sure about the use of the term “cuts to pensions”. As a pensioner myself and no fan of the Tories I suppose I should join in with the “outrage”. However, the 2.5% 3rd lock was always simply a ruse to attract the crumbly voters to get Cameron’s majority and was not in place till recently. If inflation and wages stay low, why should I benefit from a greater rise than those still working? I totally disagree with the way the pension ages have been raised, with very little notification, but in this case I find it hard to disagree with the move. I’ll go and wash my mouth out now.
Tories love cutting things, even if they’re important to the people and the nation!