Triple Lock Row: Burnham's Social Care Plan Explained

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said Prime Minister Andy Burnham is planning to scrap the pensions triple lock.

Mr Burnham was preparing to give his first speech to Labour conference as prime minister on 29 September. He told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg he wants to use it to set out a plan for an NHS-style social care system, free at the point of use, according to the BBC.

He had planned to use the annual conference speech to say the triple lock could be altered, as reported by Sky News. He had planned to offer an "honest conversation" about trade-offs in fixing national problems in a Monday speech, as reported by Reuters. He had pledged to put his social care plan to voters at the next national election, as reported by Reuters.

Ms Graham said the plan would remove security from pensioners on low incomes. "Going to a group of people who are getting around £12,500 a year in order to pay for it [social care], to take away their security, is wrong - I think its morally wrong."

She said the money should come from elsewhere. "Instead of going to try and pick the pocket of pensioners, we need to move over to the other side of the equation and think about things like wealth taxes way before we try to stop something like the triple lock."

She said scrapping the triple lock risked repeating the removal of the Winter Fuel Allowance under former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer. She said UK pensions are the lowest of the G7 countries, the group of seven large advanced economies.

Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell said the party is committed to the triple lock. She said the commitment was in the party's 2024 manifesto. She said it is set to increase the value of the state pension by around £2,000 a year over the course of this parliament.

The triple lock has been in place for 16 years. It means the state pension rises every April by at least 2.5%, or in line with prices or earnings if they are higher. The UK state pension is due to rise by nearly £500 next year, as reported by The Independent.

Former Labour minister Alan Milburn, who is leading an independent government review into young people and work, said scrapping the triple lock to fund social care is "the sort of call" Mr Burnham is "prepared to make".

The broader context here is procedural as well as about money. A manifesto promise is being tested by a prime minister who wants conference, the party's annual meeting, to back an argument to take into an election. He is not asking to legislate now. That is a familiar device. It lets him signal direction on social care while putting off the electoral cost.

In my view, the union thinking is familiar too. Ms Graham links the triple lock directly to Winter Fuel. Ministers know that episode did lasting damage with older voters and with activists. Ms Powell's intervention restates the manifesto position in precise terms. Mr Milburn's words give No 10 room to float a trade-off without owning a decision. For conference managers, the question is whether the debate stays as an "honest conversation" about future choices or hardens into a breach of faith row on the floor.