Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves to 'decide' whether people get state pension in 'outrageous' move

Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves "deciding" whether people get the State Pension has been branded an "outrageous" move by fuming campaigners. Speaking out amid claims the Department for Work and Pensions ( DWP ) could begin to "means test" the state pension, a campaigner was livid.

Lady Judith McAlpine told GB News: "So - we are to pay into our "pension fund" all our working lives but now Sir Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves will decide whether we should receive that money, that we have earned, on which we have paid tax, when we retire?

"Am I missing something? Are they talking about our money, that we and our employers have been obliged to put into the national pot so that when we retire, we are not suddenly destitute?" She went on: "What planet are these two on?"

READ MORE Martin Lewis urges UK households to 'stock up' on £1.65 essential before October

A Reeves advisr, Sir Edward Throup, has suggested means testing the state pension "needs to happen". Ms McAlpine fumed: "The world really has gone mad: I'm glad I'm not likely to be in it too much longer as all I can see is chaos exacerbated in the short term by a government that can't even do simple arithmetic and thinks the rest of us are just too stupid to notice.

"How wrong can they be?" Lady Judith McAlpine is a Conservative Party donor. She said: "The idea Starmer and Reeves decide if we get state pension - after working all of our lives - is outrageous." One of the most radical reforms the party could consider is to “means-test” the state pension, so that wealthier retirees receive less of it, or are denied the benefit altogether.

Currently, everyone aged 66 and over is entitled to payments of £11,502 a year if they have paid National Insurance for as long as 35 years.