How much of the fall in pensioner poverty is ‘thanks’ to the Conservatives?
What was claimed
Pensioner poverty halved in the past 30 years in no small part because of the Conservatives.
Our verdict
Missing context. Pensioner poverty halved from 28% to 14%, on one measure. But most of that happened under Labour. The rate changed very little across the Conservatives’ 14 years in office.
“Thirty years ago, nearly one in three pensioners in our country lived in poverty. Today, that figure has halved, thanks in no small part to the decisions made by our party, when in government, to stand by pensioners.”
During a debate on the triple lock in Parliament earlier this week, the Conservative shadow work and pensions secretary Helen Whately MP claimed that pensioner poverty has halved since 30 years ago, and that this was “thanks in no small part” to the actions of her party in government.
Ms Whately is right about the fall in pensioner poverty in the last 30 years, at least according to the measure she was citing, but whether this is thanks to the Conservatives is more debatable.
As we’ve explained previously, there are several different measures of poverty, but Ms Whately’s office told us her figures were taken from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which uses relative low income (after housing costs).
The latest version of these figures shows the percentage of pensioners in poverty based on this measure stood at 28% in 1994/95. It then roughly halved during Labour’s period of government, and stood at about 14-15% when the Conservative-led coalition came to power in 2010. Since then it has risen and fallen, and stood at about 12-14% in 2023/24-2024/25. (The data was collected in a different way from 2021/22 onwards, meaning these figures aren’t directly comparable with previous years).
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In short, pensioner poverty did roughly halve under Labour, but didn’t fall much further under the Conservatives.
Ms Whately’s office told Full Fact that Resolution Foundation figures in 2024 showed the value of the state pension had risen 16% since 2010, making “a material difference to the incomes and living standards of millions of pensioners.”
Even so, the triple lock, which was introduced in 2011 and has increased pensioner incomes since, was not the only Conservative policy that affected pensioners. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) told us: “Although the triple lock has pushed up pensioner incomes since 2011, for low income pensioners, much of the increase in state pension income has been offset by a reduction in pension credit income.”
It also told us “A significant part of the fall in pension poverty in the early 2000s can be attributed to the introduction of pension credit.” This was introduced under the Labour government in 2003.
The IFS published a report on pensioner incomes and poverty in July 2024.
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