Former work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has said the government should scrap the triple lock on the state pension to improve growing inequality between generations.
The Conservative backbencher said the 2.5 per cent guarantee on annual pension increases cost the Exchequer £18bn a year, money he said could be better spent elsewhere.
Speaking on the BBC's Sunday Politics show yesterday, Mr Duncan Smith said it was time to get state pension "back to earnings again, and [allow] it to rise at a reasonable level".
This, he said, would free up the government to spend money on people of working age on low incomes.
"Now I’m in favour of helping pensioners, but I think now that they’re up to a reasonable level, at a steady rate that can be afforded by government that takes the pressure off working age people who have to pay for that," the former Tory leader said.
He said that, as minister, he was under pressure to "scratching around trying to take more money out of working age areas", when in other areas, the budget was "almost out of control".
He said the government should "absolutely" scrap the 2.5 per cent guarantee, "as part of a whole lot of packages" to shift the focus onto the "working poor".
"It will also help with the intergenerational fairness argument, which I feel is very strong,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions said the government was committed to maintaining the triple lock up until 2020.
Beyond 2020, the spokesperson said it was not right to comment because it would "depend on a national election and who the electorate choose to elect".
james.fernyhough@ft.com
