- Conference
- 2025 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 4 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that he Triple Lock guarantee only covers the basic State Pension and not all components such as Additional Pension (the scheme which existed between 1978-April 5, 2016 and which you could contract out of), Graduated Pension (1961-1975), increments for deferring your State Pension, and the protected pension which is any amount in excess of the 100% rate of the new 100 per cent State Pension which you might be entitled to at April 6, 2016.
With the calculation of the New State Pension at April 6, 2016, in most cases, all the components of the old State Pension have been added together to give a basic State Pension, and where applicable a protected pension, which is the excess above the 100 per cent rate of the New State Pension
So by adding all the components together this has brought components such as Additional pension, within the scope of the Triple Lock, which was 4.1 per cent this April 2025. Under the old scheme, Additional Pension would have just been increased by the CPI rate of 1.7 per cent for this April 2025.
With The Triple Lock relating to the basic rates of the State Pension only, this has created a two-tier uprating system for those who reached State Pension Age before April 2016 where the 100 per cent rate of the Old/Basic State Pension is currently £176.45 a week and those who reached retirement age after April 2016 where the 100 per cent rate of the New State Pension is higher at £230.25
So a person who reached State Pension Age before April 2016 has a lower percentage of their State Pension uprated by the Triple Lock compared with those who reached State Pension Age after April 2016.
Because of this difference in basic pension and the Triple lock only relating to the basic rate of the State Pension, this will inevitably lead to those who reached State Pension Age before April 2016 falling further behind with every annual uprating.
The DWP have confirmed they cannot means-test the State Pension, so the only way that the increased costs for State Pension can be addressed is through some adjustment to the Triple Lock, and to reassess the annual uprating of the State Pension.
The new flat-rate State Pension, which came into effect in April 2016, provides a higher weekly amount than the previous basic State Pension. For the tax year 2025/26, recipients of the full new State Pension will receive £230.25 weekly as opposed to the basic State Pension rate of £176.45, leading to an annual disparity of £2,461.
Conference therefore calls on the National Retired Members Committee to campaign in all appropriate ways to have this unfair anomaly rectified.