Overview
- Ministers reaffirm a 4.8% uprating next April under the triple lock, lifting the full new State Pension to about £12,548 and leaving it close to the frozen £12,570 personal allowance extended to 2031.
- An official petition led by Timothy Hugh Mason passed 25,000 signatures, but the Treasury ruled a doubled pensioner allowance untargeted and costly and pointed to the UK’s already high personal allowance by G7 standards.
- The government says from 2027–28 it will remove the need for people whose only income is the state pension to pay small amounts via Simple Assessment, with implementation options to be published in 2026.
- HMRC clarified it will amend taxpayers’ codes automatically once the DWP confirms a state pension has started, meaning pensioners do not need to notify HMRC in advance.
- OBR analysis highlights the triple lock’s rising fiscal cost, adding around £15.5bn a year by 2029–30, as political pressure grows, including a Commons call from Sir Edward Leigh to phase it out.