How the triple lock pension pledge went out of control

In my Dispatches documentary on the generation wars, which has just aired on Channel 4, I interviewed Iain Duncan Smith about the pensions triple lock. He thinks it has turned into a monster, and discussed how it led to his resignation. He cut working-age benefits and believed that he had cut to the bone. But he was asked to go further. The ‘triple lock’ – that pensions should rise by earnings, inflation or 2.5 per cent, whichever was the highest – was intended a piece of spin. But when inflation hit zero, that turned out to be one of the most expensive pledges David Cameron ever made.

Duncan Smith told me how, when he was Work & Pensions Secretary, he’d be briefed about how the ‘triple lock’ had turned into a monster as its costs started to spiral.

‘I remember looking at a spreadsheet of this. The guys at the DWP were showing me and they were showing me that, just on an annualised basis that it had gone from what was forecast of a few hundred million to well over a billion above that.