The Scottish Government is reportedly reconsidering its promise to offer a triple lock pension to Scots if and when the country wins independence.
The triple lock is a UK government commitment to uprate the basic and new State Pension every year by the highest of earnings growth, inflation, or 2.5%.
While campaigning for the referendum, the SNP published a white paper which said ministers would keep the state pension triple lock in place and read: “The Basic State Pension would be uprated by the Triple Lock, initially for the term of the first independent Scottish Parliament.”
But our sister paper the Scottish Daily Express now reports that officials are discussing whether the policy will be possible as the pro-Indendence party lays out further arguments for Scotland becoming a sovereign state, separate from the UK.
Under the previous First Minister Humza Yousaf, the SNP Executive had been expected to publish a prospectus addressing pensions in Building a New Scotland, a series of documents laying out plans for an independent Scotland.
However, these have paused under Humza’s successor John Swinney, who was sworn in leader of Scotland’s devolved national government in May.
During the independence referendum the issue had been contentious, with Nat figures arguing that the UK Government would continue to pay pensions even in the event that Scotland became independent.
The Treasury pushed back on the suggestion, noting that pensions are paid out from the incomes of working people, and Scots taxpayers would have to pay for it.
The Scottish Government was asked by the newspaper for all work and analysis which has been done about the triple pension in an independent Scotland, including briefings and correspondence from this year, with the Nats emphasising the need for space to carry out private analysis and advice, the outlet reported.
According to the Scottish Daily Express, the response indicated that the white paper pledge may have been scrapped as ministers wrote that “Ministers and officials need to be able to consider all available options and to debate those rigorously, to fully understand their possible implications.
“Their candour in doing so will be affected by their assessment of whether the discussions on pensions will be disclosed in the near future, when it may undermine or constrain the Government’s view on that policy while it is still under discussion and development.”
They added: “Disclosing the content of free and frank advice on triple lock pensions will substantially inhibit the provision of such advice in the future, particularly because these discussions are still ongoing and decisions have not been taken….
“There is a greater public interest in allowing a private space within which officials can provide full and frank advice to Ministers, as part of the process of exploring and refining the Government’s position on pensions until the Government as a whole can adopt a policy that is sound and likely to be effective.
“This private thinking space is essential to enable all options to be properly considered, based on the best available advice, so that good policy decisions can be taken.”
After Labour’s landslide victory in Scotland in the general election, Mr Swinney said the “emphatic victory” by Keir Starmer’s party showed that Scottish voters were no longer prioritising independence.
The future of the prospectuses for pensions in an independent Scotland are now unclear, the outlet reports.
Yousaf had promised a draft constitution for an independent Scotland, the writing up of a withdrawal agreement from the UK and sending an envoy to Brussels, though the government has confirmed that work on this hasn’t yet been undertaken.
Analysis has also not been done on how a new Scottish currency in an independent Scotland would fair compared to the GBP, with economists warning the volatility of a new country would see it valued lower.
