𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Wannabe Prime Minister Andy Burnham revealed his thoughts on the much-debated pension triple lock guarantee which no party leader has dared touch for decades. The triple lock guarantees that the state pension goes up each year in line with either inflation, wage increases or 2.5%, whichever is the highest. But critics of the system argue ballooning pension payouts driven by increasing life expectancy mean the economy is dragged down by welfare expenditure predicted to hit £400billion by 2030.

This includes DWP benefit expenditure, tax credits and child benefit, and Northern Ireland social security. Total welfare spending in Britain is forecast to be 10.6% of GDP and 23.6% of the total amount the government spends in 2025 to 2026. Around 55% of social security expenditure goes to pensioners; in 2025-26 we will spend £177.7billion on benefits for pensioners in the UK. But despite the huge national and government expenditure on welfare, Andy Burnham told The i Paper that rolling back on Labour’s last general election pledge to keep the lock would be “very damaging”.

Progressive think tank the Resolution Foundation last week warned that the triple lock is not affordable over the long term and is unfair to the working population.

It recommended replacing the policy with a different mechanism for protecting the earnings of pensioners.

Andy Burnham’s potential rival for Number 10, Wes Streeting has also made his position on the triple lock clear. He said: “I can be absolutely unequivocal about that.

“The triple lock is here to stay for the entirety of this Parliament.”

Elsewhere, Mr Streeting suggested he was also committed to the Government’s “red lines” in negotiations it is holding with the EU to forge a closer relationship with the bloc.

Will Prescott, head of research at think-tank Bright Blue, said Andy Burnham must look at “big ticket items” such as the state pension if he wants to bring down the welfare bill, rather than “tinkering around the edges”.

“If you really want to touch the welfare bill, you are going to have to start going for the really big ticket items, and that will, unfortunately, be politically extremely painful to do,” he told The i Paper.

Alex Clegg, an economist at the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said it would “encouraging if the debate around what could happen with the triple lock can be had ahead of the next election and going into the manifesto period for all parties”.