𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Pensioners will applaud Andy Burnham’s passionate commitment to social care provided on the same basis as the NHS, free at the point of use, but will worry whether they will ever see it in their lifetimes.

And we are livid that opponents of the triple lock are cynically using the social care crisis to undermine the value of our state pension. The Prime Minister’s beautiful words on the social care crisis concealed a massive U-turn on the timetable for reform. In his Makerfield election campaign, Burnham said he wanted decisions on social care reform to be taken by the end of 2026.

Now he has adopted precisely the same timetable as that of Sir Keir Starmer, which he had criticised – to include proposals for reform in the 2029 Labour manifesto! Thirty thousand older people in England died last year waiting for the social care support that could have extended their lives, and leaving the resolution of the crisis to the vagaries of a general election result is the death sentence for many more.

Burnham has also completely undermined the Casey review by giving her the required outcome, which we happen to agree with.

Casey’s central question in her Big Conversation is “when we are old and disabled, who should support us and how?”

She will now have to scrap this nebulous approach and give the Prime Minister advice on how to implement his plans.

While we need to discuss options for funding free social care, scrapping the triple lock is not one of them, as it would raise minuscule amounts in the medium term.

Most opponents of the lock instead refer to an earnings link. Well, next year, that is precisely how pensions will be increased! Also, increasing pensioner poverty would increase pressures on the NHS and social care and reduce pensioners’ ability to contribute to a growing economy.

In his speech on Tuesday, Andy Burnham must tell us what he is going to do in this Parliament to repair our crumbling social care system and to put to bed all the speculation over the future of the triple lock.