One in three people think that the state pension should be means-tested, according to The Times\u2019s landmark wealth survey.<\/p>\n
We questioned more than 4,000 taxpayers and found that one in five also agreed with scrapping the triple lock, but only 9 per cent said they supported increasing the state pension age to 70.<\/p>\n
The state pension has been a hot topic among political parties, with the Reform UK leader Nigel Faragerefusing to guarantee that his party would keep the triple lock<\/a>, which guarantees that the state pension rises every year in line with wages, inflation, or by 2.5 per cent \u2014 whichever is highest.<\/p>\n The Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had suggested her party may water it down in January, but has since distanced herself from the comments.<\/p>\n \u2022 Most of Britain\u2019s top earners \u2018don\u2019t feel rich\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n The Times Wealth Survey results suggest that 68 per cent of Reform voters would be against scrapping the triple lock, while 71 per cent of Tory voters said they opposed means-testing the state pension.<\/p>\n Gordon Steele, 68, a former consultant from Glasgow, believes that those who have paid into the system while working should be entitled to the state pension.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cIt\u2019s your money \u2014 you should get back what you paid in. But for pensioners who have huge incomes and who can easily afford to go without it, who the state pension is nothing to, they should have the morals to say they will pay a little bit higher tax.\u201d<\/p>\n Steele\u2019s retirement income is drawn from several defined contribution pension pots, annuities and the state pension. He said: \u201cI had to retire due to my health when I was 60, and I am worse off year on year.\u201d<\/p>\n Britain\u2019s increasing life expectancy means that the triple lock will cost three times what was initially forecast when it was introduced in 2011. By 2029 it will cost \u00a315.5 billion more a year than if the staste pension had increased in line with earnings alone, according to the spending watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility.<\/p>\n