Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer’s BBC debate claims fact-checked

Rishi Sunak said under a future Labour government “the state pension will be subject to a retirement tax”.

Pensioners relying solely on the state pension are on course to potentially pay a small amount of income tax in 2027-28, because the state pension in that year (£12,578) is forecast to marginally overtake the tax-free personal allowance (£12,570).

The Conservative triple lock plus policy – which raises the personal allowance for pensioners to £13,710 by 2027-28 – would remove that risk.

Labour hasn’t said yet whether they would match it or not. But note, the Conservatives only unveiled the policy within the last couple of weeks, so to present this as a planned Labour tax rise is a bit disingenuous.

And bear in mind that the Conservatives’ triple lock plus would only save someone living solely on the state pension around £29 a year.

Furthermore, some people are already paying tax on part of their state pension.

Analysis by former Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb, who works for an actuary firm, also suggests that around 2.5m pensioners (one in five of the total) are currently paying income tax on their state pension and would still be even if the triple lock plus were introduced.

That’s because many people receive additional state pension payments due to their participation in the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme (SERPS).

By Ben Chu