Demand to axe pensions’ triple lock to help pay coronavirus costs

Working-age Brits are being hardest hit by the shutdown, with soaring unemployment and a looming recession

The pensions’ triple lock must be dumped to help pay coronavirus costs, experts are demanding.

Working-age Brits are being hardest hit by the shutdown, with unemployment soaring and a massive recession looming.

The nationwide lockdown due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has impacted the workforce in a big way as businesses have been shut across the country, leading to thousands of job losses.

The Social Market Foundation said pensioners should “share the burden” and have their welfare handouts trimmed.

Scott Corfe, the SMF’s research director said: Quite rightly, society is making sacrifices to protect its elderly right now. There is a clear case for intergenerational reciprocation when it comes to meeting the fiscal costs of the crisis in the years ahead.

The crisis has emphasised our obligations to other generations, even in the face of personal sacrifice, he said. This spirit must be maintained when the dust settles – with the economic costs of responding to the crisis shared fairly across the generations.

The triple lock is a legal guarantee that ensures the basic state pension will rise by at least 2.5 per cent.

Replacing it with a “double lock” that removed the 2.5 per cent minimum rise would save a whopping £20billion over five years, the SMF said.

The report warned it would be grossly unfair to dish out the bumper benefit while others are forced on the dole.

A staggering 1.2million Brits have been forced onto universal credit in just three weeks as the coronavirus crisis hammers the economy.

And there are growing fears the economy will not simply bounce back when the lockdown is finally lifted.