A statement from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in November reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the triple-lock.
“We want to ensure economic security for people at every stage of their life, including retirement. We are committed to the triple-lock, which is protecting the incomes of millions of pensioners.”
Not equal
The strong growth, however, has not benefitted all pensioners the Resolution Foundation’s ‘As Time Goes By’ report found.
While the typical income across the pensioner population has grown by more than 30% since 2001, those who turned 65 in 2001 had only experienced a 7% increase in their income by 2014.
Adam Corlett, economic analyst at the Resolution Foundation, said: “One of the most intriguing aspects of the recent living standards story across Britain has been typical pensioner household incomes overtaking working age households for the first time.
“This has led some to assume that all pensioners are enjoying some kind of boom amid the painful squeeze for everyone else.
“The reality is quite different – the incomes of individual pensioners grow relatively slowly, particularly once they’ve stopped working.
“Instead, the main driver of pensioner income growth has been the arrival of successive new waves of pensioners, who are more likely to work, own their home and have generous private pension wealth than any previous generation,” Corlett said.
