Burnham will scrap the pension triple lock in 2030 to fund social care

From April 2030, state pensions would rise by whichever is higher of CPI inflation or 2.5%, dropping the earnings link that has made the triple lock the most expensive and least predictable part of UK pension policy, Burnham told Labour conference. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates the earnings link alone costs around 16 billion pounds a year and called removing it a major, welcome change, though it warned the savings won't be enough on their own to fund a universal National Care Service. The policy doesn't touch the current Parliament, so roughly 13 million pensioners see no change until after the next election, due by mid-2029. Reform UK's Robert Jenrick called it just mean, and Kemi Badenoch says the savings won't cover a nationalised care system for decades, leaving the actual social care funding gap as unresolved as it was before the announcement.