State pensioners issued £400 blow over Triple Lock rise from next year

State pensioners have been handed a £400 blow over the Triple Lock. State pensioners have been told a Labour Party claim that they would be £400 better off next year is actually false, as a myth buster and fact-checker issued a statement over the claim.

Full Fact's Hannah Smith clarified: "The full basic state pension is set to rise by around £350 from April next year, not £400." She said: "This isn’t correct. The full basic state pension is expected to increase by about £350 next year.

"Mr McFadden may have intended to refer to the new state pension, which is expected to increase by about £460." Smith said: "It seems likely Mr McFadden misspoke, and was intending to refer to the new state pension (for people of state pension age born after the dates above), the full value of which is set to increase by approximately £460.

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"We’ve contacted Mr McFadden to ask him to clarify what he was referring to and will update this article if we receive a response." She said: "Although Mr McFadden said the increase would be “over the next year”, he was responding to a question about financial pressures “this winter” and his answer, which was slightly unclear, also referred to how the triple lock could help people “this year”.

"The basic state pension increased in April by around £700 a year, while the new state pension increased by around £900 a year. If an MP makes an inaccurate claim on broadcast media they should take responsibility for ensuring it is appropriately corrected, and make efforts to ensure the correction is publicly available to anyone who might have heard the claim."

The UK state pension increases in April each year, based on a system known as the triple lock. Introduced in 2011 by the coalition government, this guarantees that the state pension (both the basic and the new state pension) will rise by whichever of the three key figures is the highest.