A leaked Labour manifesto has pledged to maintain the triple lock, the state pension age and compensate Waspi women with extra credit, among other pensions commitments.

Ahead of the general election, the manifesto states that Labour will seek to keep the triple lock policy in place, prevent the Conservatives’ planned increases to the state pension age beyond 66 and compensate women who have seen the age they can receive their state pension rise, by providing them with increased pension credit.

In order to prevent a reoccurrence of the inequality imposed on 1950s-born women, Labour explained that it will legislate so that accrued rights to the basic state pension cannot be changed, but future benefits can.

The party has also said that it will launch a new state pension age review to develop a “flexible retirement policy to reflect both the contributions made by people, the wide variations in life expectancy and the different nature of working lives”.

Labour looks to further tackle pensions issues by putting in place an immediate review of mineworkers pension scheme and British Coal Superannuation Scheme, as well as protecting businesses from “hostile takeovers” to ensure that “when a company is bought there is a clear plan in place to protect works and pensioners”.

Furthermore, the manifesto also briefly discusses workplace pensions, noting it will: “restore confidence in the workplace pension system and put people rather than profit at its centre. Labour will end rip off hidden fees and charges and enable the development of large efficient pension funds…. [with] more cash for members and lower costs for employers.”

Hargreaves Lansdown senior pension analyst Nathan Long commented: “We already know the planned increases [to the state pension age] were due to save the government £30bn, so unwinding these will be very expensive. Plans to stop future tinkering impacting on accrued state pension may be appealing, but risk create huge levels of complexity and are probably best avoided.

“It is curious that they plan a new review of state pension specifically looking at the challenges of the population having a wide range of life expectancy. John Cridland has only recently conducted a review of state pension that looked at exactly these issues, presumably this was not sufficient.

“Saving for retirement is somewhat absent, meaning we are unsure as to what the plans are for workplace pensions and whether crucially, the self-employed will be included in the auto-enrolment program that ensures people are automatically joined to a pension plan. We have already seen plans to tax those earning over £80,000 which could easily see a further limiting to tax relief for those impacted.“

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