LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s government might need to temporarily suspend the way that growth in wages are included in the country’s “triple lock” system for calculating increases in the state pension, the head of parliament’s Treasury Committee said on Friday.
Pensions stand to go up very sharply because of an expected leap in wage growth next year, reflecting the end of the government’s coronavirus job retention scheme – under which many workers are currently getting 80% of their salary – this year.
“A way forward might be to temporarily suspend the wages element of the lock,” Mel Stride, chair of the Treasury Committee, said.
“This might not entirely conform to the Conservative Party manifesto, but I think most people would recognise that a potential double-digit percentage increase is unrealistic.”
(Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Michael Holden)
