State pension age would have to rise above 70 under Tory triple lock pledge, minister says

People could have to wait until well into their 70s to receive the state pension if a future Conservative government keeps the triple lock unchanged, Treasury minister Torsten Bell has claimed.

Mr Bell argued that maintaining the policy without reform would require faster increases in the state pension age to manage its cost.

Keeping the triple lock in its current form would cost £50billion a year by 2050, according to government estimates.

The state pension age is under review and is already scheduled to rise to 68 between 2044 and 2046.

Mr Bell criticised the Conservatives' pledge to preserve the triple lock while opposing Labour's planned reforms.

He pointed to the party's decisions in government to bring forward increases in the state pension age in 2011 and 2014.

"If you don't want to have an adjustment to the triple lock, then you will need to do other things to make the state pension remotely sustainable," he said.

"We don't need to guess what they would do because they've literally just done it, which is they repeatedly and at very short notice accelerated the increases in the state pension age."

Some affected people "had as little as five years' notice", Mr Bell added.

Former chancellor George Osborne described raising the pension age in 2013 as "one of the less controversial things we have done", while saying it had delivered "absolutely enormous savings".

Mr Bell also accused Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch of taking a policy position that conflicted with her self-presentation as a straight-talking politician.

"I think this is a bigger problem for Kemi Badenoch than she thinks. She thinks that her brand is principled, know what you think, tell it straight.

"And on this, she has done the opposite we know that she knows it needs to change," he said.

He pointed out that Ms Badenoch herself had suggested as recently as last year that the triple lock should be means tested.

Former Tory chancellor Jeremy Hunt had also described the policy as an "anchor drag" on the public finances.

"The triple lock kind of is the final nail in the coffin of the idea that there's anything fiscally responsible about modern Conservatism," Mr Bell said.

Labour's reformed triple lock from 2030 will increase the state pension annually by the higher of inflation or 2.5 per cent.

Payments will only rise in line with earnings growth if the pension's value has fallen behind recent wage increases.

The changes are due to take effect from the next parliament, with initial savings directed towards Andy Burnham's national care service.

The triple lock had long been considered too politically dangerous to touch, particularly after the backlash that forced Labour to abandon its earlier plan to strip winter fuel payments from most pensioners.

Mr Bell, who served as director of the Resolution Foundation before entering parliament as MP for Swansea West in 2024, said the prime minister's 10-year plan would guarantee a better deal for tomorrow's retirees.

"It's just really important to be able to say to people, 'the comfortable retirement that your parents had: we're going to make sure that today's private sector workers have got those'," he added.