LONDON, Oct 17 (Reuters) – British finance minister Jeremy Hunt said on Monday he was unable to commit to raising state retirement payments in line with inflation in April as currently planned.
He was asked during a parliamentary debate to recommit to the triple lock, a government promise to raise publicly-funded pensions by the highest of earnings, inflation or 2.5%.
“I’m very aware of how many vulnerable pensioners there are and the importance of the triple lock … but I’m not making any commitments on any individual policy areas,” he said.
“Every decision we take will be taken through the prism of what matters most to the most vulnerable.”
With inflation at around 10%, the policy would be expensive to implement at a time when the government is pivoting towards spending cuts and cancelling planned tax cuts to try to balance its books.
Reporting by William James, Editing by Paul Sandle
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