Anything less than 8.5 per cent and Jeremy Hunt is killing off the triple lo…

The Chancellor has been considering stripping out so-called one off public sector bonuses from the calculation to shave £900 million off the bill.

But many older people will agree with former pensions minister, Sir Steve Webb, that this amounts to “fiddling” the figures.

Since its introduction 13 years ago, the part of the calculation that links rises to earnings has been based on total pay – including bonuses – over a three month period compared to the same point the previous year.

To suddenly change that because it is convenient undermines the very point of having a “lock”.

Many voters already have a shaky faith in the protection the funding formula is supposed to provide.

Although it was painful, the decision taken by Rishi Sunak when he was chancellor to suspend it for one year was at least understandable at the time of a once in a century pandemic that shut down the economy and threw everything off course.

But since then there have been repeated threats to its existence, first briefly under Liz Truss, then under Mr Sunak when he became Prime Minister.

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We launched our first crusade to protect it a year ago and, thankfully, secured victory.

But the whole point of the triple lock is that it means the formula – a rise of at least 2.5 per cent, inflation or average wage increases, whichever is higher – is never even put on the table for discussion.

That we have had to launch a second crusade just a year later to ensure the triple lock is honoured in full is disappointing and readers have shown their anger.

Nearly 280,000 people have backed our petition with Silver Voices.

There will always be a reason, one off bonuses, a difficult year of inflation and so on, to tweak the formula but that is the very reason it was put in place – to stop governments resorting to pitiful increases in tricky times.

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The UK state pension is still one of the lowest in the developed world.

Any changes to the formula now will render any future triple lock promise in an election manifesto completely meaningless.

For a government struggling in the polls, alienating one of the key groups of voters who may be willing to back them would be unwise at the very least.

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