Keir Starmer Scraps Pension Triple Lock to Fund Care

Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced he will scrap the state pension triple lock in the next parliament to fund a new national care service. Starmer accelerated the completion of a major adult social care review to next year, intending to include a national care service plan in the next Labour election manifesto. The proposed model aims to mirror Scotland's system of free personal care.

The funding shift follows warnings from Louise Casey, head of the social care commission, who describes England's social care system as being in chaos. Casey argues that successive governments have been "asleep at the wheel," resulting in a lack of system stewardship, ineffectual regulation, and a patchwork of inconsistent local services. She is calling for a "new settlement" based on decency and a duty to care.

Casey is aligning her findings with the Covid-19 inquiry, which characterized the adult care sector during the pandemic as an afterthought. She describes the failure to protect care homes during that period as a "national shame."