'Triple lock' safe until 2029 but Labour refuses to rule out axe AFTER next election as £18bn care bill looms

From the Newshound archive · first published 27 September 2026 · last updated 28 September 2026.

Defence Secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed that the state pension triple lock will be protected for all 13.3 million recipients through the 2029 general election, but declined to offer any commitment beyond that point. Senior Labour figures, among them former chief secretary Darren Jones and ex-work and pensions secretary Lord Blunkett, are already pressing for the policy to be abolished to fund Burnham's proposed NHS-style national care service, put at £18 billion a year. Blunkett contends that scrapping the triple lock could yield £22 billion in savings by 2030, while Burnham has said "nothing is off the table" on funding — though he insists any changes will be held over until the next manifesto.

The triple lock ties annual pension increases to whichever is highest among earnings, inflation or 2.5%; this year's earnings growth figure of 3.9% translates to a rise of nearly £500 from April 2027.

Jones told the BBC that as social care costs climb, "there's a benefit to redirecting money to help older people" — a remark widely read as signalling a potential deal trading the lock for free care.

Reform's leadership views the triple lock as a sharp dividing line with Labour, and critics caution that Burnham risks echoing the collapse of Theresa May's 'dementia tax' if he moves against pensioners.