The Liberal Democrats have become the first UK party to commit to protecting the state pension triple lock in the next parliament, in a move that aims to bring “thousands of vulnerable pensioners out of poverty”.

Ahead of its autumn conference on Sunday (24 September), the party confirmed that it would commit to keeping the triple lock in place, “giving pensioners the security of knowing it will be there to support them in future years”.

Under the triple lock, the basic state pension received in retirement rises each year in line with whichever is the highest out of three factors: wage growth, inflation or 2.5 per cent.

The Liberal Democrats argued that the triple lock remains “crucial”, with research revealing that one and half million older people are still living in absolute poverty across the UK, including 1 in 4 single older women and in 5 single older men.

The party stated: “The endless flip flopping by the Conservatives and the Labour Party on this issue is causing huge anxiety for pensioners already worried sick about how to pay the bills.

“Pensioners are also being hit particularly hard by the cost-of-living crisis, facing disproportionately high energy bills.

"The average energy bill of just under £2,000 is 20 per cent of the £9,627 a year paid through the new state pension. They should not be made to pay the price for years of economic mismanagement under the Conservatives.

“Three hundred thousand pensioners have been lifted out of absolute poverty since the Liberal Democrats in government introduced the triple lock in 2010. We cannot allow this progress to go into reverse.”

The government has recently faced growing pressure over the cost of the state pension triple lock, with pensioners set for a 'substantial' rise in state pension for the second year running after wage growth hit 8.5 per cent in july 2023.

Industry analysis also recently revealed that maintaining the triple lock could increase spending by anywhere between a further £5bn and £45bn per year by 2050, having already raised state pension spending by around £11bn a year compared since 2010.

Given the political importance of the initiative, industry experts have suggested that a broader review of the state pension could be needed to gauge whether the mechanism remains sustainable.

Neither the Conservatives or Labour have so far committed to protecting pensioners by keeping the triple lock in place.

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