Millions of older people are already in the tax system because they have private pensions (often very modest) or income from savings. Every one of these pensioners is, in effect, having their state pension taxed because their pension is added to their other income without mitigation, and taxed accordingly.
So, for these millions, any Triple Lock increase is taxed and reduced by 20%. Although legally defined as a “benefit”, the state pension is paid for throughout our working lives by tax and national insurance contributions, and it makes no sense to tax it again.
Most benefits are not taxed. The best solution would be for the tax system to discount any income received from state pension entitlements. But that is not the situation we find ourselves in.
Because of the freeze on the lower tax threshold since 2021, introduced by the Tories and gratefully continued by Labour, the majority of pensioners have been sucked into the tax system.
This number increases in leaps and bounds each year, with 660,000 pensioners added in the last financial year alone. Now even those with tiny occupational pensions or additional state pension entitlements have become liable for tax.
And from 2026 those whose only income is the new state pension will probably have to start paying tax on it.
The DWP has no way of taking tax from the state pension at source and so tax liabilities will be notified after the money has been paid, leaving many pensioners struggling to pay back the arrears.
We doubt that the Government has considered the full administrative implications of this crazy and demeaning policy.
The Conservatives belatedly proposed, at the General Election, that they would solve this problem through their Triple Lock Plus, which would have increased the personal allowance for pensioners by the Triple Lock percentage each year.
Silver Voices asked Labour to match this pledge, but the request was ignored.
So, Labour now faces a problem of its own making, but it is easy to resolve.
We propose that £1000 is added to the personal allowance for all pensioners, and that the allowance is then uprated in line with the Triple Lock each year.