The Times has reported that the Government is predicted to spend more on pensions than the budgets of the Department for Education, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence combined in 2025. Last year pension costs increased to £110 billion and are expected to increase to £135 billion by 2025, whereas the combined departmental costs are predicted to be £133 billion.

 

The increase in pension costs is due in part to an ageing population. Between April 2026 and 2028 the state pension age will increase to 67, with plans to raise it to 68 between 2044 and 2046. Both Labour and Conservatives have committed to keeping the triple lock until 2030.

 

Commenting on the Times’ analysis, Sir Steve Webb, former Liberal Democrat minister for pensions, said, “Pensioners are a protected group electorally, so the state pension gets protected. The NHS is a kind of national religion and is protected. And therefore everything else gets squeezed. The time will come when none of those things can be squeezed anymore, and that’s when the crunch really comes.”

 

Similarly, conservative peer, Baroness Altmann criticised the triple lock saying it is “unsustainable” and proposed a double lock system based on inflation and earnings as well as raising the number of years of national insurance contributions needed to qualify for a state pension.

 

A Government source said, “That’s the cost that comes with protecting the old. They can’t get jobs, most people can, for many it’s their only sole source of income.”