State pension was 'never designed to be replacement wage' as Triple Lock axed for thousands

Jersey Minister Lyndsay Feltham made the statement in response to concerns raised by backbencher Deputy Max Andrews.
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The state pension was "never designed" to be a replacement wage for pensioners to live on, a minister has warned. Jersey Minister Lyndsay Feltham made the statement in response to concerns raised by backbencher Deputy Max Andrews.

Feltham acknowledged it would be nice to "have a magic wand and make the old age pension higher" and said: "From those people that are currently employed and knowing the pressures that we've got on the island, that is something that I cannot currently do."

Deputy Andrews conceded that a state pension matching full-time minimum wage would be "unrealistic". It comes as plans for the "triple lock" uplift to state pensions on the Isle of Man to be scrapped in a bid to preserve the National Insurance Fund have been outlined.

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The £1.09bn fund is topped up annually with money left over after contributions from workers have been used to pay for the majority of benefits and state pensions. But a report released in October forecast the fund would be exhausted by 2047-48, partly due to people claiming state pensions for longer, if the system remained.

The change, which would affect those who reached state pension age after 5 April 2019, would see pensions rise by 2% or inflation each year, whichever figure was higher. The new Manx Pension Guarantee would see payments to those who reached pension after the 2019 date rise by 2.2%, reflecting the most recent Manx inflation rate, and grow from £12,558 to £12,831 for the 2025-26 year.

Pensioners born before that date would see a 4.1% increase, with payments uplifted from £8,814 to £9,175 across the same period before the Manx Pension Supplement is added for those eligible. Treasury Minister Alex Allinson said the revised scheme was "about intergenerational fairness, and accommodating the needs of today's children and grandchildren".