His comments came as he was answering questions from MPs after delivering his first statement in the Commons as Chancellor, during which he warned the Government would not shy away from taking “difficult decisions”.
Labour’s Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) asked: “Does the Chancellor agree with the Prime Minister who confirmed that the state pension would rise with inflation in April and if he does agree, can he commit to it today?”
Mr Hunt replied: “I’m very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are and the importance of the triple lock but, as I said earlier, I’m not making any commitments on any individual policy areas, but every decision we take will be taken through the prism of what matters most to the most vulnerable.”
Inflation is expected to be by far the highest factor this year, potentially putting pensioners in line for an increase of 10% or more.
Last year, the triple lock was suspended, with pensioners receiving a 3.1% increase.
If anyone can, Hunt can:
Hunt took over responsibility for the NHS in 2012. By the time he left the post six years later, patient experience and staff morale had both taken a dramatic turn for the worse across many key indicators.
Hunt oversaw years of historically low funding increases (around 1%, compared with an average of 6% in the years between 1997 and 2010, and compared with the 4.3% recommended by the Office of Budget Responsibility and the likes of the Kings Fund, Health Foundation and Nuffield Trust, as the minimum to keep up with health inflation and increasing demand).
Truss no longer committed to maintaining triple lock on pensions, No 10 says
Liz Truss is no longer publicly committed to defending the triple lock – the guarantee that the state pension will rise every year in line with inflation, earnings, or 2.5%, whichever is highest. In their 2019 manifesto the Conservatives said they would “keep the triple lock” and in interviews only two weeks ago, during the party conference, Truss confirmed that she was still “committed” to it.
Not any more. At the Downing Street lobby briefing after cabinet, the PM’s spokesperson refused to say that Truss still feels bound by this. He did not say it would definitely go, but he clearly signalled that it is up for negotiation.
You can expect more of this now that Baby Boomers are no longer the voting force they once were. Pollies will have their mind set on pleasing Millennials, their interests do not include paying pensioners a decent pension
Ah, but how many Millennials are there? That’s the point. According to our last census they now outnumber Baby Boomers as we slowly die out. You can be sure that the political parties are constantly reviewing these statistics and making decisions based on this
There will still be plenty of us Boomers bobbing around in 2 years time .
Older age groups are much more likely to vote than younger people,
With older people becoming a larger proportion of the population, as the U.K. has a ageing population …people are living longer,
the next general election with that in mind the government should reacting to our preferences not alienating us.
I remarked elsewhere that her word is irrelevant. She knows she’ll be gone soon anyway, so the inevitable u turn will be down to someone else anyway. Might as well make Hunt’ s job as hard as possible as she wends her way through her mind palace of chaos.
I think I’ll wait until I see the increased pension payment in my Bank Account next year before I trust that there will be no more changes of policy about it!
I saw Jeremy Hunt warning us only a day or two ago that he couldn’t make any promises about keeping the triple lock - then another Government spokesman, Foreign Sec, James Cleverley said in an Interview only an hour or two before Truss went into PMQs that there was no certainty about whether or not the Triple Lock on pensions would be kept - then up pops Truss and seems surprised by the Question about it - she acted as if there had never been any doubt cast on the Pension Triple Lock promise!
Bizarre!
When it comes to Truss promises, I’ll remain sceptical until I see proof of them coming to pass!
You misunderstand the situation, it is not that baby boomers will suddenly lose their influence but it will be a slow decline as we die out and our benefits as a massive voting block will be redirected to younger generations. While it is true Millennials will grow older they will never have same the influence as pensioners that baby boomers did purely because no one else will ever outnumber previous and subsequent generations by such a vast amount, theirs is a temporary dominance as the following generations grow up.
Baby Boomers were a massive increase in the birth rate (in schools referred to as “the bulge”) no one generation will ever have the influence baby boomers did ever again (or at least not in the foreseeable future, barring world wars, plagues etc)
You can already see this slowly emerging with, for example, the raise in pension age,
Sorry but our influence is on the wane, the benefits we enjoy will be eroded, get used to it.
I don’t misunderstand …nobody is going to live forever.
You don’t seem to grasp the fact there will always be a large older generation …the U.K. has an ageing population…
whether it be baby boomers or eventually millenniums.
Moving on …Truss has confirmed she will be keeping the triple lock
Well that’s today …tomorrow who knows
OK, well I am just glad that you are so confident that pensioners will retain the benefits handed out to baby boomers because of their large voting block.
You didn’t need to, it is the inevitable result if what you say is so. Pollies pander to those who have the most influence in electing them. It’s a fact of life.
