The Prime Minister says his proposed changes to state-pension increases must be judged alongside a future National Care Service offering free personal care.
Andy Burnham has rejected the suggestion that his social-care plan picks on pensioners, as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage accused Labour of betraying older people.
Asked on ITV's *Good Morning Britain on Wednesday why he was targeting pensioners, the Prime Minister said that was "completely wrong". He argued that some older people currently pay care charges from their basic state pension and that his proposed National Care Service would offer a better overall settlement. His interview was a defence of the policy; there is no evidence that he was responding directly to Farage's article.*
Farage, writing in an article published by Reform UK on Wednesday, called the plan a "pension betrayal". He pledged to retain the current triple lock and argued that different spending priorities—including cuts to foreign aid, welfare and net-zero programmes—could pay for it. His article asserted that Reform had identified £50 billion in immediate welfare savings, but did not set out an independently verified costing for that figure.
The current triple lock raises the state pension each year by the highest of inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5%. Burnham has pledged to maintain it until April 2030. After that, the government proposes annual increases of at least inflation or 2.5%, with an additional safeguard intended to keep the pension's value in line with earnings over time. That would change how the annual earnings guarantee works, even though the government calls the replacement an "adjusted Triple Lock".
The government estimates the change would reduce annual state-pension spending by £15 billion by the end of the 2030s. It says the savings would help build a National Care Service in phases during the next Parliament. Baroness Louise Casey's commission is due to report in summer 2027 on how the service could be delivered. The £15 billion is a government estimate, not a completed funding plan for every element of the service.
The proposed free provision covers *personal care*, such as help with washing, eating and using the toilet. It would not cover accommodation and living costs in a care home, for which existing means-tested arrangements would remain.
The political disagreement is therefore about two linked questions: how quickly state pensions should rise after 2030, and whether the proposed care service would leave older people better off overall.
