Friday, March 29

Liz Truss says she is ‘fully committed’ to raising pensions in line with inflation


UK Prime Minister Liz Truss said Wednesday that she is “fully committed” to raising pensions in line with rising inflation. Truss has said that she would keep the “triple lock” [triple cierre]a rule introduced by the Conservative government in 2010 in which they commit to increasing publicly funded pensions in relation to the higher of three elements: inflation, average salary increase or 2.5%.

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“We have been clear in our program that we will maintain the triple closure and I am fully committed to it, and so is the minister. [de Economía]Truss said. However, British Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt had said on Monday that he could not commit to raising state pensions in line with inflation in April as planned.

“I am well aware of the number of vulnerable pensioners there are and the importance of the triple closure … but I am not going to commit myself in any specific political area,” the minister said on Monday, according to Reuters.

The annual consumer price index (CPI) in the United Kingdom stood at 10.1% in September, the highest level in 40 years, reported this Wednesday the National Statistics Office (ONS, in English). The year-on-year CPI in September was 8.8%.

In Spain, all pensions, contributory or not, will grow based on inflation. The Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, has estimated that this increase to be applied to pensions will be around 8.5%, based on the year-on-year CPI data for the month of November. The definitive data will be known, therefore, at the end of the year.

Hunt, who took office last Friday after the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng, announced on Monday that he was abandoning “almost all” of Truss’s plans to cut taxes announced in the government’s so-called “mini-budget” three weeks ago. The minister is due to make a statement on the government’s tax and spending plans on October 31, the BBC reports.

The management of the conservative leader after just five weeks in power – since last September 6 – has earned her criticism from the opposition and internally, by deputies Tories who want him gone, like Crispin Blunt, Andrew Bridgen and Jamie Wallies, who called for his departure over the weekend.

This Wednesday, the leader of the Labor Party, Keir Starmer, said that Truss “was not in charge” and that his promises “do not last even a week.” “How can you be held accountable? [a Truss] when you’re not in charge?” he said. “What’s the point of a prime minister whose promises don’t last even a week?”



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