Lord Davies of Brixton

The Social Security Administration Act 1992 requires the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to review State Pension and benefit rates each year to see if they have retained their value in relation to the general level of prices or earnings. Where the relevant State Pension or benefit rates have not retained their value, legislation provides that the Secretary of State is required to, or in some instances may, up-rate their value. Following this review, State Pension and benefit rates are increased in line with statutory minimum amounts and others are increased subject to Secretary of State’s discretion.

Although the statutory minimum for the increase in basic State Pension and the full rate of the new State Pension is at least the growth in earnings, the Government has a manifesto commitment to up-rate those benefits using the Triple Lock (the highest of the growth in prices, average earnings or 2.5%) throughout this Parliament.

The percentage rate chosen in the Secretary of State’s Review is applied to the current full weekly rates of the basic and new State Pensions. The resulting amounts are rounded to the nearest 5p. This results in a percentage rate which is applied to each individual’s existing pension payment.

The Triple Lock does not apply to other elements of the State Pension – such as the additional State Pension, Protected Payments, deferred increments and other elements. These are all up-rated by prices (CPI). After applying the CPI percentage to the amounts in payment, the resulting weekly amount is rounded to the nearest penny for these components.

The Office for National Statistics will publish the average weekly earnings (AWE) figure for year to May to July 2025 on 14 October and the consumer price index (CPI) for year to September 2025 on 22 October. This year’s up-rating review will commence once the ONS figures for AWE and CPI are released and will conclude at the end of November.

No such estimate has been made. Final savings will be certified and published by the Office for Budget Responsibility after the Autumn Budget on 30^th October, taking account of any behavioural response and the estimated numbers of people who will receive Pension Credit in the upcoming years.

The Department has secured funding for additional staffing to assist with the processing of the additional Pension Credit claims being made. We have recently published Weekly Pension Credit claims received from 1 April 2024 to 22 September 2024 - GOV.UK www.gov.uk which provides the number of Pension Credit claims received by the department. We are deploying over 500 additional staff to cover the expected increase in Pension Credit applications and will endeavour to process claims as soon as possible.

Estimated savings that result from the introduction of means testing for the Winter Fuel Payment are sensitive to the forecasted take-up of Pension Credit. Final savings will be certified and published by the Office for Budget Responsibility after the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024, taking account of any behavioural response and the estimated numbers of people who will receive Pension Credit in the upcoming years.

In the King’s Speech in July 2024, the Government confirmed its intention to bring forward draft legislation setting out its proposals to create a new statutory regulator – the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA) – with a wider remit and the powers it needs to uphold standards in financial reporting in the UK.

A draft Bill and further information about the Government’s proposals for ARGA, including its responsibilities and scope, will be published in due course.