JD beat me to it.
There isn't a situation in terms of those three parameters where pensioners do less well, so if they get an advantageous year once in a few, they pull ahead.
The rules:
Under the triple lock system, the state pension increases each April in line with whichever of these three measures is highest:
- inflation in the September of the previous year, using a measure called the Consumer Prices Index (CPI)
- the average increase in total wages across the UK for May to June of the previous year
- or 2.5%
So relative;lly speaking, pensioners are doing OK.
But we have an economy which runs on "selling each other double glazing" so we haven't had enough growth, and we don't have enough money.
There are many horrible imbalances, such as train drivers' pay compared with junior doctors', etc.
Interesting
table puts us below Bulgaria and Ukraine:
ahead of the USA though (not shown).
A Belgian friend was alarmed at how low our pension is. Obviously we need to make more chocolate and beer.
Theirs is a complex scheme, earnings dependent , where civil servants do a lot better than the self employed, Contributions of 3% of salary is the norme. Their bare minimum is €1100 ish a month. They also have something means-tested like our Pension Credit scheme.
Our problem is simply that our governments never said whether the WFP was part of the Pension Scheme or not. If not, then it should be time-limited, as was the case with the Cost of Living allowance, or means-tested.
If the State pension isn't enough to live on, then raise it; having an add-on which isn't part of it but everyone gets, doesn't make sense to me.
The "£3" argument above is anile, captious forum trolling of course.
