A snap poll has found that the public seem to generally be in favour of Andy Burnham’s major announcement about the triple lock on pensions.
One of the headline announcements from Burnham’s conference speech on Tuesday was his plans to scrap the triple lock, which currently means that the state pension increases each year by either 2.5%, inflation or average earnings growth, whichever is higher.
Whilst Labour will stick by their manifesto pledge to protect the triple lock in this parliament, Burnham’s proposals would see it reformed from April 2030, should Labour be in power after the next general election.
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This would see the state pension rise every year by either the rate of inflation or 2.5%, whichever is higher. This ‘double lock’ would mean the state pension rises at a slower rate, saving the treasury billions.
Burnham said this money would then be put towards funding a National Care Service which would make social care free at the point of use.
Following the announcement, that has sparked criticism from both left and right wing voices, YouGov carried out a snap poll to see if people were in favour of the policy.
They found that almost half of the public (48%) supported the proposal, with 28% opposed.
Meanwhile, a quarter of Brits didn’t know what they thought about the policy yet.
In his speech on Tuesday, Burnham said that from 2030 the state pension will “continue to rise every year at least by prices or 2.5%.
He continued: “And it will hold its value relative to earnings over time so that pensioners will always share in the rising prosperity of the nation.
“This change will generate significant savings, which we will use to build up our own National Care Service.”
He added that he “may pay a political price” for the change, but “someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off”.