Reform’s plan for future of pensions โ list of โchangesโ for Brits | Politics | News
Reform UK has pledged to ‘protect’ hardworking pensioners (Image: Getty)
As Reform UK remains on an upward trajectory to Downing Street, scrutiny has intensified of the insurgent party’s policies and what they could mean for the average Brit.
Nigel Farage’s party hasn’t provided many details of its pension policy plans for office, but figures have floated proposals that could spell major change for retirees and savers. Its ethos is to “protect pensioners and ensure they are looked after”, according to Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick.
“Pensioners paid into the system for decades and helped keep this country going,” he told the Express. “We will get the public finances under control, but never by targeting those who have worked hard all their lives.”
Robert Jenrick credited pensioners with ‘helping to keep the country going’ (Image: Getty)
Keeping the triple lock
One of Reform’s major pension policies is its pledge to keep the triple lock mechanism in place, guaranteeing that the state pension will continue to rise by whichever is the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5%.
Speaking at a press conference in London in April, Mr Farage said: “We have discussed it and we have debated it, and we’ve decided it’s going to stay.”
Mr Jenrick reiterated the pledge but indicated “hard choices” would be made elsewhere.
There have been increasing concerns over the long-term affordability of the triple lock in recent months, with Conservative MP Sir Edward Leigh describing it as “unsustainable” and “completely unfair on young people”.
But Mr Farage said his party could afford to keep it in place “many, many times over”.
Changes to public sector pensions
While promising to keep the triple lock in place, Reform has suggested it could make significant changes to public sector pensions.
Reform argues that defined benefit (DB) schemes, which are offered to many teachers, NHS staff and council workers, are too generous.
The schemes provide a guaranteed income for life in retirement for workers, and are separate from the defined contribution (DC) schemes of the private sector, where workers save into pots which are then invested and for which they hold individual responsibility.
Mr Farage said earlier this year that his party would carry out “the biggest cuts to the benefits bill ever seen in the history of this country” if voted into office.
Cutting ‘wasteful’ spending
Mr Jenrick said the party will prioritise pensioners while seeking to “cut wasteful spending” if they take office.
This could be through measures including scrapping indefinite leave to remain, potentially seeing hundreds of thousands of legal migrants deported and rules tightened for those looking to migrate to Britain.
The party’s home affairs spokesperson Zia Yusuf has spoken of creating a new “Trump inspired” deportation agency with capacity to detain up to 24,000 migrants. Reform says the indefinite leave reforms alone could save over ยฃ200billion.
“We will cut wasteful spending, including from stopping the eye-watering cost of Boris-wave migrants, so pensioners can live with dignity in retirement,” Mr Jenrick said.
