The new Treasury Minister has firmly ruled out applying a retrospective increase to state pensions.
MHK Julie Edge had asked why the “inflationary pension increase was not applied in 2022/23” and whether a retrospective 5.1% rise would be considered, utilising the NI Fund.
Chris Thomas explained the 3.1% increase implemented in April 2022 was set by “the UK inflation rate CPI at September 2021,” following UK policy with the triple lock’s earnings element suspended.
He told members it would cost a “huge amount of money” to go back on that.
He defended the settled decision, saying the 2022 settlement “was approved in Tynwald democratically, it’s not up for revisiting”.
Ms said that result had left pensioners out of pocket and accused the government of pulling the wool over people’s eyes in terms of that decision.
Conversation
Questions were raised about the long-standing “national conversation” on pension policy.
Former minister Dr Alex Allinson asked if pegging increases to UK figures “does cause these anomalies,” which Mr Thomas acknowledged was part of an ongoing debate.
Lawrie Hooper also sought clarity on the triple lock’s future, with Mr Thomas rsaying it “is still in place” and committed to publishing detailed information on the issue.
Supporting the 2022 decision, Cabinet Office Minister David Ashford stated the suspended earnings element “was not reflective of the actual reality” due to a post-pandemic spike.
The Minister confirmed he would circulate detailed supplementary information.