Submitted by Bill Fernie
17th September 2026
Watch the video and listen carefully - You may be shocked.
The old age pension triple lock is under attack again. The Financial Times wants it scrapped. The Resolution Foundation wants it ended. The Tony Blair Institute says it is unaffordable. But they are all looking at the wrong pension subsidy to criticise.
The UK spends around £154 billion a year on state pensions. The accumulated additional cost attributed to the triple lock is estimated at around £16 billion. That money has helped protect pensioners' incomes, including those of the many people who depend almost entirely on the state pension.
There is, however, another pension subsidy that receives far less attention: tax relief on private pensions. The total cost of private pension tax reliefs is around £83.9 billion a year, with 71% of that tax relief going to higher and additional-rate taxpayers.
Most strikingly, the cost of higher-rate pension tax relief, over and above the basic rate everyone can enjoy, is around £15 billion a year, which is remarkably close to the £16 billion cost attributed to the pension triple lock.
So why is the political debate focused on restraining the incomes of pensioners rather than on reducing tax subsidies for people already able to accumulate substantial private wealth?
This isn’t fundamentally an affordability question. It is about inequality, political priorities and whose interests government chooses to protect.
I think the triple lock should stay, and higher-rate pension tax relief should go. You may, of course, disagree.
00:00 The Triple Lock Is Under Attack Again
01:02 What Is the State Pension Triple Lock?
02:11 What Has the Triple Lock Actually Cost?
03:18 Why the Triple Lock Matters to Pensioners
04:31 The Real Pension Subsidy Nobody Talks About
05:42 The £83.9 Billion Cost of Pension Tax Relief
06:52 Who Really Benefits From Pension Tax Relief?
08:05 How Much Do Higher Earners Receive?
09:19 State Pensions Prevent Poverty — Tax Relief Subsidises Wealth
10:34 The £15 Billion Alternative to Cutting the Triple Lock
11:42 This Is a Political Choice, Not an Affordability Crisis
12:49 Why Cutting the Triple Lock Could Fuel Political Anger
13:53 Protect Pensioners, Not Wealth Subsidies
Comment
Recently here have been many commentw about the triple lock but vry few about the fact that better off people get huge subsidies on pension payments. Peope on low incomes often do not get much information on who is getting the tax subsisdies. Richard Murphy has talked about pension tax relief often and he is right to shine a light on it again. It is past time for the govrnment to bring in restrictions for reasonsof fairness.