THE Prime Minister’s refusal to commit to the triple lock on pensions is mentally torturing pensioners, a campaigner has said.
Dennis Reed of Silver Voices told GB News: “It’s like the Hokey Cokey. One minute, we’ve got the triple lock, the next minute it’s gone, virtually on a daily basis.
“Although I’m joking about it, it is a very serious matter. It is mental agony for a lot of pensioners who can’t afford their food prices and they can’t afford their energy prices.
“To be told one minute they’re getting 10% on their pension, albeit next April, and then to be told, well maybe it’s not anymore and it might be 5%, is actually intolerable. It’s mental torture.
“We need reassurance before 17 November that the Government is going to stick by its promise that it’s made so many times that the triple lock will be restored.
“The new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made a great thing about saying that his mandate comes from the manifesto in 2019 and that was a key element of it, so that mandate will be seen as worthless if key promises like that are not followed through.”
In an interview with Mark Longhurst on GB News, he added: “Those people who are relying on the state pension as their main source of income, there are millions of those people. And it can’t easily be resolved by some sort of means test, the means test would probably cut off at the same point that pension credit does now.
“There are so many people who are on less than £200 a week that desperately need extra support for their energy and food.”
Asked if there was concern about rises in other allowances, Mr Reed said: “Yes, of course. And that was that was another promise that benefits would be inflation proofed.
“There are some very important benefits like pension credit that apply to pensioners too, so we want reassurance on that.
“We’re going to be campaigning really hard between now and the 17 November to make sure that there is a switch back again to ‘yes, the triple lock is on’.”
