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    triple lock

    Explore "triple lock" with insightful episodes like "State pension goes above £10,000 - but has something got to give?", "Should the triple lock give an 8% state pension rise?", "Should the pensions triple lock be scrapped?" and "The perils of owning a period property" from podcasts like ""This is Money Podcast", "This is Money Podcast", "Money Clinic with Claer Barrett" and "Money Clinic with Claer Barrett"" and more!

    Episodes (4)

    State pension goes above £10,000 - but has something got to give?

    State pension goes above £10,000 - but has something got to give?
    The state pension is getting a boost this week, meaning many pensioners will see their payments go above £200 per week or £10,000 per year for the first time. 

    The Government has also recently announced that it is delaying a decision on hiking up the state pension age to 68 until after the next election – perhaps influenced by protests across the channel. 

    Pension commentators said move would be 'incredibly unpopular', and likely 'political suicide'.

    Governments don’t like to upset retirees because they vote in high numbers – but maintaining the status quo is incredibly expensive. Has something ultimately got to give when it comes to the state pension age and maintaining the triple lock?

    On this week’s podcast, Georgie Frost is joined by Tanya Jefferies and Helen Crane to discuss.

    We also look at one lucky This is Money reader who is getting an even bigger rise, seeing his pension go up by more than 16 per cent. It sounds like great news – but he is wondering whether it means he has been short-changed in the past. 


    The team looks at why it’s important, how to do it – and why it isn’t just about money. 

    Etoro’s Sam North provides the latest update on the markets as we head into the long weekend. 

    We also discuss why broadband companies have been able to get away with ignoring instructions from regulator Ofcom to make switching easier for customers

    It told them two years ago that they needed to make it possible to swap providers in just one day – so why are most of us still left languishing without an internet connection for up to two weeks? 
     
    Finally, do you fancy a sabbatical from work to travel? Some big firms are offering the extended time off as a perk to long-serving staff – but would your boss let you go, and how would you afford it? 

    Should the triple lock give an 8% state pension rise?

    Should the triple lock give an 8% state pension rise?
    The triple lock has always been a hot potato but things have stepped up another gear as it could deliver a bumper 8 per cent state pension increase due to a statistical quirk.

    The state pension pledge means that payouts rise by the greatest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent.

    Yet, wage growth numbers are being skewed this year because the Covid crash a year ago saw millions put on furlough on a maximum of 80 per cent of earnings, workers suffer temporary pay cuts, and many lose their jobs.

    Job cuts disproportionately hit the low paid and continue to do so, taking them out of the figures and bumping up the average wage, workers coming back from furlough are seeing pay go back up to their full amount, and short-term pay cuts have been reversed.

    All this makes average wage growth look artificially high, despite many public and private sector workers suffering pay freezes or negligible rises.

    The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that distortion could lead to an 8 per cent wage growth figure in the month the triple lock reading is taken from, delivering a £14 weekly increase to the state pension and £3billion bill.

    Is it fair for pensioners to get a bumper increase based on a distortion caused by the pay pain suffered by workers in lockdown? Some say ‘no’, others say ‘stick to the deal’.

    On this week’s podcast, Tanya Jefferies, Georgie Frost and Simon Lambert look at what is causing the triple lock anomaly and what the Government might do. Will they pay up or fudge it?

    Also this week, the painful cases of those who cannot afford funerals for loved ones, the return of gazumping to the property market, and finally, the crazy NatWest banking rule that has forced a reader to have their employer’s bank accounts mixed with theirs in online banking.