North Shropshire pensioners will be £9.5m worse off if triple lock axed

Pensioners in North Shropshire will be left an average of nearly £400 worse off if the triple if the triple lock is abandoned, the area’s MP has warned.

North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan spoke in the House of Commons this week to raise concerns from elderly people in her constituency who have contacted her to stress the importance of keeping the triple lock in place.

Some pensioners are worried about whether they will be able to afford to keep their heating on if the triple lock is scrapped or whether they will become isolated due to not having the money to leave the house.

Helen shared the fears of one constituent who said: “Myself and many others will have to pare our spending even more. Occasional meet-ups with friends will be the next to go and then more and more people will become isolated and depressed.”

Elderly people in North Shropshire will be nearly £9.5 million worse off if pensions are uprated by earnings growth rather than CPI, new analysis shows.

There are more than 25,000 pensioners living in the constituency and if their pension only increases in line with earnings growth they will be £379 worse off than if it is uprated in line with inflation.

North Shropshire MP Helen Morgan said: “There are more than 25,000 pensioners living here in North Shropshire and being in a rural area they face higher fuel and heating costs than many other parts of the country.

“Lots of them have contacted me to share how worried they are by the Government’s failure to commit to supporting them.

“The Government’s woeful management of the economy has already left ordinary people worse off. Now is not the time to hit pensioners’ pockets even harder.

“Liberal Democrats want to make sure Rishi Sunak doesn’t sell out our pensioners again and honours his manifesto commitment to keep the triple lock in place.”