Conservatives’ state pension Fb adverts are deceptive

“Keep in mind when Labour elevated the state pension by solely 75p?” asks a Conservative video advert on Fb, contrasting this with the £3,700 improve because the Tories got here into authorities in 2010.

However that is deceptive, as a result of it compares an increase within the weekly quantity over a single 12 months with the rise within the annual worth over 14 years.

It is a message the Conservatives are pushing onerous. BBC Confirm evaluation of the advert library information of Meta, Fb’s father or mother firm, suggests they’ve run 975 variations of this single marketing campaign message – simply altering the identify of the city or metropolis being focused – since 21 June 2024.

The video ends with the assertion: “Pensioners will all the time be higher off with the Conservatives – don’t danger all of it with Labour’s retirement tax”.

This can be a reference to a different declare about private tax allowances for pensioners.

Here is a breakdown of the claims within the much-promoted marketing campaign video.

The 75p improve pertains to the rise within the weekly worth of the fundamental state pension – the older type of the pension at present being claimed by individuals of their 70s and over – for a single individual enacted in Gordon Brown’s Funds in 2000.

This was in step with 1.1% Retail Worth Index inflation in September 1999, used on the time to uprate the fundamental state pension.

That took the weekly worth of the fundamental state pension from £66.75 to £67.50, a rise of 75p.

This low uprating prompted an outcry and pressure on the then Labour government to be more generous to pensioners.

The present worth of the fundamental state pension is £169.50 per week. This works out at £8,814 per 12 months.

In 2010, when the Conservatives entered authorities, the worth of the fundamental state pension was £97.65 per week, or £5,078 per 12 months.

So between 2010 and 2024 the annual worth of the state pension rose by £3,736.

Which means that of their Fb adverts the Conservatives are evaluating a rise within the weekly worth of the fundamental state pension in a single 12 months below the earlier Labour authorities with a rise within the annual primary state pension below the Conservatives over 14 years.

Though pension will increase had been decrease below Labour, the hole will not be as nice because the advert suggests. The common annual uprating of the fundamental state pension below Labour (between April 1998 and April 2010) was 3.5%, in comparison with the 4% common annual uprating below the Conservatives (between April 2011 and April 2024).

And the Conservatives have elevated the worth of the state pension relative to common earnings because of their post-2010 Triple Lock policy.

This has ensured (besides in 2022-23 when it was temporarily suspended) that the state pension has risen in step with common wages, Client Worth Index inflation or 2.5%, whichever is highest.

In 2010 the basic state pension was worth 19.6% of median average earnings. In 2023 that had risen to 22.9%.

The Tory Fb advert additionally references one thing referred to as “Labour’s retirement tax”, which misleadingly implies Labour is imposing an additional tax.

On the most recent official Office for Budget Responsibility projections, some pensioners present solely on the state pension are probably on track to pay earnings tax in 2027-28.

That is as a result of the annual worth of the brand new state pension in that 12 months (£12,578) is forecast to marginally overtake the tax-free personal allowance (£12,570), which has been frozen by the Conservative authorities.

After the election was referred to as, the Conservatives introduced the “Triple Lock Plus” coverage – elevating the non-public allowance just for pensioners to £13,710 by 2027-28.

Labour haven’t mentioned but whether or not they’ll match it or not, however it will be disingenuous to indicate Labour is imposing an additional tax.

Moreover, evaluation by the previous Lib Dem pensions minister Steve Webb, who now works for the actuary agency LCP, means that around 2.5m pensioners (one in five of the total) would still be paying income tax on their state pension even when the Triple Lock Plus had been launched.

That is as a result of many individuals obtain further state pension funds as a result of their participation within the State Earnings Associated Pension Scheme (SERPS).

The worth of the state pension will depend on the purpose at which a person reached state pension age.

Those that reached this age earlier than 6 April 2016 are sometimes entitled to the flat-rate primary state pension of £169.50 per week in 2024-25, although many may also have some earnings-related state pension after constructing entitlements throughout their working life.

These reaching the state pension on or after 6 April 2016 are sometimes entitled to the flat-rate new state pension of £221.20 per week.