UK Pension: How the Triple Lock Works
Every April, the UK State Pension rises under a rule called the triple lock: the highest of average earnings growth, CPI inflation, or 2.5%. This video explains the mechanism itself, then follows it from the pensioner poverty of the pre-2010 price-only years, through its 2010 coalition-government origin, fifteen years of rises from £102.15 to £184.90 a week, the 2022 earnings-link suspension and the record 10.1% rise that followed, the OBR's finding that its cost has roughly tripled since 2010, the double-lock and smoothed-earnings reform ideas from the Social Market Foundation and the IFS, Chancellor Rachel Reeves's 2025 decision to keep it and the resulting 4.8% rise for April 2026, and Prime Minister Andy Burnham's 29 September 2026 announcement that the earnings link ends from April 2030 to help fund a National Care Service.
It also covers the separate timetable raising the State Pension age from 66 to 67 by 2028, and what all of this means for today's pensioners against today's workers.
Every figure is on screen with its source and date.
In these topics
Tags
Chapters
- What the triple lock actually is
- Pensioner poverty before 2010
- Born in coalition talks
- How it worked in practice, 2011-2026
- The 2022 announcement and the 10.1% rise
- Why economists call it unsustainable
- The reform proposals
- Reeves keeps it, for now
- Burnham's 2030 announcement
- State pension age moving too
- What it means for you
Sources and credits
Photo credits (Wikimedia Commons)
- Old Age Pension Book Postal Order, 1909 - the original UK old-age pension payment book: British Government, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOld_Age_Pension_Book_Postal_Order%2C_1909.jpg
- Chancellor's Budget Red Box (Gladstone's Red Box), used to carry the Budget to Parliament: The National Archives UK profile, No restrictions - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ACropped_Gladstone%27s_Red_Box.jpg
- 10 Downing Street, seat of the Prime Minister and coalition government: Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3A10_Downing_Street_early_1900s.jpg
- House of Commons chamber, where pension and Budget policy is debated: Francis Godolphin Osbourne Stuart, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AOld_House_of_Commons_chamber%2C_F._G._O._Stuart.jpg
- Palace of Westminster and Westminster Bridge, seat of the UK Parliament: American Stereoscopic Company, Public domain - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWestminster_Bridge_and_Houses_of_Parliament_London_England_c._1900.jpg
Primary sources
- House of Commons Library, 'State Pension triple lock', CBP-7812, and 'The triple lock: how will State Pensions be uprated in future?', CBP-11126 - the mechanism, and the 2011/12 to 2026/27 rate history.
- Pensions Policy Institute briefing note BN104 and House of Commons Library summaries - basic State Pension fell from about 26% of average earnings in 1979 to about 16% by 2010.
- HM Treasury, Budget 2010 (22 June 2010) - the original triple lock announcement by Chancellor George Osborne, effective from April 2011.
- DWP State Pension uprating announcements, autumn 2021 and autumn 2022 - the 2022/23 earnings-link suspension (CPI 3.1%) and the 10.1% rise from April 2023 (September 2022 CPI).
- Office for Budget Responsibility, 'Fiscal risks and sustainability', July 2025 (obr.uk) - triple lock cost forecast ~£15.5bn/year by 2029-30, versus a ~£5.2bn first forecast in 2010; state pension spending projected to keep rising as a share of GDP into the early 2070s.
- HM Treasury Autumn Budget 2025 (26 November 2025) and DWP uprating statement, reported by MoneySavingExpert, AJ Bell and Professional Adviser - triple lock retained; April 2026 uprating of 4.8%, set by average earnings growth (4.8%) over CPI inflation (3.8%); basic pension £184.90/week, new State Pension £241.30/week.
- ITV News, Politics.co.uk, HuffPost UK, AOL/PA and IBTimes UK, 29 September 2026 - PM Andy Burnham's Labour conference speech announcing the triple lock's earnings link ends from April 2030, replaced by inflation-or-2.5%, to help fund a National Care Service; officials' estimate of ~£15bn/year savings by 2040.
- DWP State Pension age timetable and the Pensions Act 2014 - State Pension age rising from 66 to 67, phased April 2026 to April 2028.
Not regulated financial advice.