'Triple Lock Plus': Sunak pledges to lift pensioners' tax allowance by £100

Pensioners will be given a tax break worth £100 in 2025 that will grow over time and add to their incomes on top of rises in the pension, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to promise on Tuesday.

From April next year the income tax personal allowance for pensioners will be increased in line with the triple lock, as Mr Sunak continues the Conservatives’ election campaign.

As part of the plan, the state pension and pensioners’ tax-free allowance will always rise in line with the highest of earnings, wages or 2.5 per cent.

Billed the “triple lock-plus”, the policy is estimated to cost £2.4 billion ($3 billion) a year by 2029-2030, a price close to Mr Sunak’s proposed national service duty for all 18-year-olds, billed at £2.5 billion a year.

The tax cut will be funded through a previously announced plan to raise £6 billion a year by the end of the next parliament by clamping down on tax avoidance and evasion.

Rishi Sunak through the years - in pictures

The policy follows criticism of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s decision to cut national insurance by 2p at the spring budget, after a similar cut in the autumn.

State pensioners did not benefit from the cut, as they do not pay national insurance.

While Mr Sunak said the Tories were committed to the triple lock, he claimed Labour would make those receiving the full state pension pay income tax.

“I passionately believe that those who have worked hard all their lives should have peace of mind and security in retirement," he said.

“Thanks to the Conservatives’ triple lock, pensions have risen by £900 this year and now we will cut their taxes by around £100 next year.

“This bold action demonstrates we are on the side of pensioners. The alternative is Labour dragging everyone in receipt of the full state pension into income tax for the first time in history.”

But Labour claimed the Tories’ offer to pensioners was not credible.

“Why would anyone believe the Tories and Rishi Sunak on tax after they left the country with the highest tax burden in 70 years?” said Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow paymaster general.

“This is just another desperate move from a chaotic Tory Party torching any remaining facade of its claims to economic credibility.

“Not only have they promised to spend tens of billions of pounds since this campaign began, they also have a completely unfunded £46 billion policy to scrap national insurance that threatens the very basis of the state pension.

“Labour will protect the triple lock. But Rishi Sunak is planning to reward Britain’s pensioners for their loyalty by stabbing them in the back, just like he did to Boris Johnson and just like he has done to his own MPs.”

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Low turnout

Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.

Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.

"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."

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Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.