The triple lock needs reform, but the wealth tax suggested by Owen Jones as a way of recouping revenue from wealthy pensioners will create other problems (The poor need the money, the rich may not – but I say hands off the state pension triple lock, 27 March).
One of the flaws in the existing triple lock is that the annual increase is determined as the greater of the yearly inflation rate and average wage increases in the year, with an underpin of 2.5%. But a one-off jump in inflation one year can easily be followed by a greater wage increase the next as salaries catch up, so the state pension benefits from two larger-than-usual increases rather than one. This can easily be mitigated by basing the state pension on the greater of cumulative inflation and wage increases rather than just using the yearly figures.
