Why the triple lock is essential for low-income households

For many of the pensioners we speak to, the state pension is almost all the money they have coming in, and the triple lock decides how much it goes up each year. So yesterday's announcement that it will change from April 2030 matters to older people living on the lowest incomes.

The government has promised to keep the triple lock as it is until April 2030. From then, the state pension will rise by 2.5% or inflation, whichever is higher, and by more if that's needed to keep its value in line with earnings. The savings will go towards a new National Care Service.

The government says nobody's pension will ever go down, and that's true. But the change strips out the part of the triple lock that has slowly been lifting the state pension compared with wages. At the moment, when wages bounce back after a lean year, pensions rise with them. From 2030, pensioners who've been kept afloat by inflation or the 2.5% floor through a tough patch will have to wait for wages to catch up before their pension grows with earnings again. The Institute for Fiscal Studies, which welcomed the reform, says it removes the triple lock's permanent ratchet effect on the state pension.

How much could pensioners lose?

The government's own figures show what's at stake. It expects the change to cut state pension spending by £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s, rising to £50 billion a year by 2050. Shared across the more than 13 million people who get a state pension today, that's more than £1,000 a year each by the end of the 2030s, and the gap keeps widening after that as the savings more than triple by 2050.

That money comes out of everyone's pension in the same way. But £1,000 means something very different to a pensioner with a workplace pension than it does to someone living on the full new state pension of £12,548 a year, where it's the equivalent of around a month's income.

Why can't pensioners make up the difference?

Once you've retired, there are very few ways to boost your income when money gets tight. Many retire with little or no private pension and no savings to fall back on, and plenty are too unwell to go back to work. When the state pension is almost all the money you have coming in, the way it rises each year decides whether you can keep up with your bills.

Pension Credit has never mattered more

If the state pension is going to grow more slowly, Pension Credit becomes the safety net for many more pensioners. It tops up weekly income to £238 for a single person or £363.25 for a couple, and it's worth over £4,000 a year on average, or around £87 a week. It also opens the door to other help, such as Housing Benefit, council tax reduction and free NHS dental care.

But around 900,000 pensioners who are eligible for Pension Credit don't claim it.

If the government is going to slow the rise in the state pension, it has to make sure Pension Credit reaches everyone who's entitled to it. That means finding new ways to reach people who don't realise they qualify, and making it as simple as possible for them to claim.

Check what you're entitled to

If you're over State Pension age and money's tight, you could be missing out on Pension Credit or other support. You can use our benefits calculator to check, or speak to us and we'll work out what you're entitled to and help you make a claim.