Downing Street has defended plans to offer a possible double-digit increase in the state pension next year, although workers are being asked to accept pay cuts in real terms.
Simon Clarke, chief secretary of the treasury, confirmed this week that the government was approaching Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s promise to reinstate the “triple blockade” of state pensions.
The triple blockade protects the income of the elderly by ensuring that the state pension will increase each spring for inflation, average wage growth or 2.5%, whichever is higher.
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With inflation hovering around 11% this fall – and September inflation being the benchmark used to calculate the triple blockade – it could mean a double-digit increase in profit.
However, workers, including striking railway staff, are being asked to accept the “sacrifice” of wage agreements well below the rising cost of living, in order to avoid creating a spiral in that large wage increases translate into more upward pressure. about prices.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman was asked why public sector workers cannot receive the same wage treatment as those receiving pensions or other benefits, also in line with the increase.
He told reporters: “It’s always about getting the right balance when it comes to making sure we reward our public sector workers fairly without doing anything that is irresponsible to public finances in general.
“The Chancellor has to consider everything and I think the opinion is that we can fulfill this commitment without fueling inflationary pressures, but you know, we made difficult decisions regarding the triple blockade with a one-year temporary suspension. “
The triple blockade was suspended this year because an increase in wage growth data in 2021, skewed by the impact of the pandemic, could have resulted in a much larger-than-usual rise in pensions.
But the chancellor confirmed last month, while announcing a new £ 15bn cost-of-living aid package, that it would mean the money on the energy bill of all households would be reduced, that the triple blockade would return next spring.
Clarke confirmed the policy in a written response to Labor MP Janet Daby on the aid available to pensioners facing inflationary pressures.
It will mean an increase in pensions that will be much higher than current inflation, which is expected to fall from its current four-decade highs.
But the message for workers has been different.
Clarke told Sky News on Monday: “If we are to prevent the evil of inflation … then we must show collective responsibility to society as a whole.
“I recognize that there are sacrifices in this situation.”