State Pension uprated by 3.1% under suspended triple lock

The State Pension was uprated by 3.1% on 6 April 2022, after the earnings link in the triple lock was suspended for one year¹. The rise was worth an annual boost of up to £289 for pensioners¹. Had the triple lock applied as usual, the increase would have been 8.3%, because pandemic wage distortions had pushed the earnings measure artificially high¹. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation states that the pause prevented an 8% rise in the State Pension in April 2022².

The new State Pension rose from £179.60 a week to £185.15 a week, and the basic State Pension from £137.60 to £141.85 a week³. The full new State Pension is now £185.15 a week³. The new State Pension requires 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions for the full amount and at least 10 years to receive anything⁴. The state pension age is 66 for men and women and is gradually increasing, with a rise to 67 expected before the end of the decade⁴.

The 3.1% uprating was one of several changes to household finances in April 2022. The health and social care levy added 1.25 percentage points to National Insurance contributions from April 2022¹. The National Living Wage for workers aged 23 and over rose from £8.91 to £9.50 an hour, with minimum wages for other age groups also increasing¹. The energy price cap was expected to rise on 1 April, with Energy UK warning it could increase by £500 or more from the then cap of £1,277¹.

The Work and Pensions Committee, in a report published on 30 September 2022, noted that the Government had frozen the lower earnings threshold in 2022/23 and had increased National Insurance contributions from April 2022⁵. The Committee also cited research published on 31 August 2022, with analysis by the Pensions Policy Institute for B&CE, providers of the People's Pension, which found that the combination of auto-enrolment and a reformed state pension is "not likely to result in an adequate retirement income for the majority"⁵.

Why it matters for households

The 3.1% increase applied to the State Pension from 6 April 2022¹. For a pensioner receiving the full new State Pension, this meant an extra £5.55 a week, or £289 a year¹. The increase was smaller than the 8.3% that would have applied under the triple lock, a difference the Government attributed to pandemic-related wage distortions¹.

The uprating took effect alongside other cost pressures. The health and social care levy added 1.25 percentage points to National Insurance contributions from April 2022, affecting workers' take-home pay¹. Energy bills were expected to rise from 1 April, with warnings of an increase of £500 or more on the then cap of £1,277¹. The National Living Wage rose to £9.50 an hour for those aged 23 and over¹.

For pensioners living abroad, the 3.1% increase did not apply everywhere. The State Pension is uprated annually only in countries with agreements with the UK, including the USA, all EU countries, Barbados, Bermuda, Israel, Jamaica, Mauritius and the Philippines⁴. Those in countries without such agreements, including Australia, Canada and South Africa, have their pension frozen at the level it was when they first moved abroad⁴. The change to how State Pensions are calculated for people who have lived in Australia, Canada or New Zealand also took effect from 1 January 2022⁴.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation reports that in 2022/23, 23.6% of pensioners were living in households with incomes below the Minimum Income Standard, compared with 13.1% in 2008/09². The proportion of single pensioners below MIS more than doubled over the same period, from 16.9% to 34.5%².

What happens next

The triple lock was reinstated for April 2023, with a 10.1% rise in the State Pension². The Joseph Rowntree Foundation notes that the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment for all but the poorest pensioners in 2024/25 will also have an impact on pensioner income adequacy in future years². The Work and Pensions Committee's report of 30 September 2022 set out recommendations on pension saving adequacy, to which the Government had two months to respond⁵.