- Conference
- 2025 National Retired Members Conference
- Date
- 19 June 2025
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference is aware that the UK State Pension is among the lowest in Europe. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development noted that 14.5% of UK pensioners lived in relative income poverty in 2022. This is a high percentage compared to other countries. The state pension is increased each year in line with the triple lock. Some politicians claim that this is unsustainable and benefits pensioners more than working people. For most pensioners, if they look at the increased cash they got from their state pension in April and compare it to what it now costs them to live, they will find that the increased income does not cover their increased spend. For many the increase in income from the state pension and from their private pension just covers the increase in their expenditure (excluding car costs). Someone with a private pension that does not increase each year will find that their pension income is reduced. This is due to the increased amount of tax that the Government takes because the tax allowance of £12,750 has been frozen, and it is planned to continue this freeze until 2027/28. In two years’, time some pensioners will pay tax on their state pension. Conference therefore calls on the National Retired Members Committee to: ? Continue to campaign to support the triple lock process to increase pensions. ? Work with the National Executive Council, the Scottish Pensioners Forum and other relevant organisations to highlight the effect of freezing the tax allowance on pensioners’ income and campaign for the tax allowance threshold to be increased yearly by inflation.