Conservatives promise tax cut for pensioners with ‘triple lock plus’

Published

10 months ago

May 27, 2024

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The Conservatives have promised to cut taxes for pensioners by creating a new “age-related” tax-free allowance – dubbed “triple lock plus”.

Currently, people can receive £12,570 a year of their pensions before they start paying income tax on them – the same figure as the personal allowance for those who work.

But if the party wins the next election, a pensioner’s allowance would rise in line with either average earnings, inflation or by 2.5% – whichever is higher – from next April, echoing the rules on annual state pension increases.

Rishi Sunak said the move “demonstrates we are on the side of pensioners”, and would bring people “peace of mind and security in retirement”.

But Labour’s shadow paymaster general, Jonathan Ashworth, called it “another desperate move from a chaotic Tory party torching any remaining facade of its claims to economic credibility”.

He added: “Why would anyone believe the Tories and Rishi Sunak on tax after they left the country with the highest tax burden in 70 years?”

The Liberal Democrats said the Conservatives had “hammered pensioners with years of unfair tax hikes”, adding: “People won’t be fooled by yet another empty promise from Rishi Sunak after this record of failure.”

The Conservatives first brought in the triple lock when they were in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats in 2010 to tackle pensioner poverty, saying the annual rise would protect retirees from hikes in living costs, and both Labour and the Lib Dems have promised to keep it in place.

However, while the state pension has continued to rise, the threshold for when both pensioners and those of working age pay income tax has remained frozen since April 2021 when Boris Johnson was in power, meaning some of those on lower incomes have been brought into paying tax.

This new measure would change that for pensioners, with a “guarantee in legislation that the pensioners’ personal allowance will always be higher than the level of the new state pension”.

The Tories said eight million people would save around £100 next year and gain further savings each year as the tax-free allowance grew, with the £2.4bn a year policy paid for through “clamping down” on tax avoidance and evasion.

Making the announcement, Mr Sunak said: “I passionately believe that those who have worked hard all their lives should have peace of mind and security in retirement.

“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’s Mr Ashworth hit back, saying: “Not only have they promised to spend tens of billions of pounds since this campaign began, they also have a completely unfunded £46bn 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.”

Sunak turns gaze to older voters – and leaves questions for Labour

Rob Powell

Political correspondent

@robpowellnews

This is another bold and very political announcement by the Conservatives.

It was only months ago that there had been discussion in Whitehall of whether the triple lock had a future at all, given its extortionate cost.

Now the Tories have gone in the opposite direction, dressing up an income tax cut for pensioners as a beefing up of the expensive ratchet measure.

It will likely prompt questions of generational fairness, given that tax thresholds for those of working age are still due to stay frozen until 2028, while at the same time the triple lock has seen the state pension rise by 8.5% this year and 10.1% in 2023.

Tory sources pointed out that workers had already had a big national insurance cut. And while they said there were currently no plans to unfreeze allowances more broadly, they did re-emphasise an ambition to keep cutting taxes in other areas if feasible.

This move is political because it will inevitably lead to questions about whether Labour will follow suit and mirror this promise.

If they do not, expect accusations of a Labour tax rise for pensioners.

What’s more, with the state pension expected to rise above the current allowance level in a few years, the Tories are also suggesting that a Labour government would drag everyone who claims the state pension into paying income tax for the first time.

The hobbling irony there, of course, is the main reason that would happen is the tax allowance freezes that the Tories brought in.

Coming off the back of the national service policy blitz, this is clearly another attempt to reach out to the Tory base of older voters.

Combine that with Rishi Sunak’s recent visits to traditional Conservative heartland seats and it’s hard not to conclude that this is a campaign currently in a defensive mode.

What’s maybe more interesting though is that, as yet, neither Labour nor the Liberal Democrats have criticised the substance of the policy change directly, no doubt aware of the political risks of being seen to line up against tax cuts for pensioners.

While the Conservatives will focus on pensioners, Labour will use Tuesday to appeal to businesses as shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves makes her first major speech of the general election campaign.

She will promise to run “the most pro-growth Treasury in our country’s history” if her party takes power on 4 July, and promises to be both “pro-worker and pro-business, in the knowledge that each depends upon the success of the other”.

It comes after more than 120 business leaders, including chef Tom Kerridge and Wikileaks founder Jimmy Wales, signed an open letter giving their backing to Labour to “achieve the UK’s full economic potential”.

The Liberal Democrats will turn their attention to crime on the campaign trail, pledging to introduce “burglary response guarantee” so all domestic burglaries are “attended by the police and properly investigated”.

Politics

Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Published

9 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Stablecoins are the best way to ensure US dollar dominance — Web3 CEO

Stablecoins are the single best tool for the United States government to maintain the US dollar’s hegemony in global financial markets, according to LayerZero Labs CEO and founder Bryan Pellegrino.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, the CEO of LayerZero Labs, which created the LayerZero interoperability protocol recently chosen by Wyoming to be the distribution partner for the Wyoming stablecoin, said that the cross-border accessibility of dollar-pegged tokens makes them an obvious choice to drive US dollar demand. Pellegrino added:

“Stablecoins for the US dollar are the single best tool — the last Trojan Horse or vampire attack on every single other currency in the world — whether it is Argentina, whether it is Venezuela, whether it is all of the countries that have massive inflation.”

The CEO said he expects support for stablecoins on both the federal and state levels to grow because of the obvious boost stablecoins give to the US dollar in foreign exchange markets and the financial moat stablecoin-driven demand will create around the US dollar’s global reserve currency status.

Dollar, US Government, Stablecoin — *Stablecoin market overview. Source:* *RWA.XYZ*

US government looks to stablecoins to protect US dollar

Pellegrino cited Tether’s emerging role as one of the largest buyers of US Treasury bills in the world as evidence of the demand for US debt instruments from stablecoin issuers.

Tether recently became the seventh-largest holder of US Treasuries, beating out Canada, Germany, Norway, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at the White House Crypto Summit on March 7, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to extend US dollar hegemony and indicated this would be a top priority for officials in 2025.

According to a 2023 report from Chainalysis, over 50% of all the digital asset value transferred to countries in the Latin American region, including Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, and Venezuela was denominated in stablecoins.

The low transaction fees, relative stability, and near-instant settlement times for dollar-pegged stablecoins make these real-world tokenized assets ideal for remittances and stores of value for residents in developing countries suffering from high inflation and capital controls.

Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins

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CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

Published

11 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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CFPB likely to step back from crypto regulation — Attorney

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) will likely see a reduced role in crypto regulations as other federal agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and state-level regulators assume a bigger role in crypto policy, according to Ethan Ostroff, partner at the Troutman Pepper Locke law firm.

“I think with the current administration, my sense is, we are highly likely to see a significant pullback by the CFPB in the context of the activity by other regulators,” Ostroff told Cointelegraph in an interview.

State regulators also have the authority under the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA) to assume some of the regulatory roles of the CFPB, the attorney said but also added that some regulatory functions will continue to fall within the purview of the CFPB as a matter of established law.

Ostroff cited the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) and the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) as regulators to keep an eye on as potential leaders of crypto regulations at the state level.

However, the attorney clarified that while the CFPB may see a diminished role during the Trump administration, the agency would not be outright dismantled during the current regime due to “statutorily mandated obligations and requirements” that require acts of Congress to change.

Trump administration targets CFPB in efficiency push

The Trump administration targeted the CFPB as part of a broader push by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to slash government spending and reduce the federal debt.

Russell Vought, the recently appointed head of the CFPB, announced major funding cuts to the agency and scaled back operations within days of assuming the helm at the CFPB in February 2025.

Bitcoin Regulation, US Government, United States, Donald Trump — *Source:* *Russell Vought*

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren criticized Elon Musk for dismantling the CFPB, which the US senator co-founded back in 2007.

Warren characterized Musk as a “bank robber” and claimed that the Trump administration dismantled the CFPB to undo consumer protection rules and have greater control over the financial system.

In a February 12 interview with Mother Jones, the senator stressed that the Executive Branch of government does not have the statutory authority to fully dismantle the CFPB, which can only be done through Congressional approval.

Magazine: SEC’s U-turn on crypto leaves key questions unanswered

Politics

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments

Published

17 hours ago

April 6, 2025

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Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing .5 billion in repayments

Nearly 400,000 creditors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX risk missing out on $2.5 billion in repayments after failing to begin the mandatory Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process.

Roughly 392,000 FTX creditors have failed to complete or at least take the first steps of the mandatory Know Your Customer verification, according to an April 2 court filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.

FTX users originally had until March 3 to begin the verification process to collect their claims.

“If a holder of a claim listed on Schedule 1 attached thereto did not commence the KYC submission process with respect to such claim on or prior to March 3, 2025, at 4:00 pm (ET) (the “KYC Commencing Deadline”), 2 such claim shall be disallowed and expunged in its entirety,” the filing states.

Nearly 400,000 FTX users risk losing $2.5 billion in repayments — *FTX court filing. Source:* *Bloomberglaw.com*

The KYC deadline has been extended to June 1, 2025, giving users another chance to verify their identity and claim eligibility. Those who fail to meet the new deadline may have their claims permanently disqualified.

According to the court documents, claims under $50,000 could account for roughly $655 million in disallowed repayments, while claims over $50,000 could amount to $1.9 billion — bringing the total at-risk funds to more than $2.5 billion.

The next round of FTX creditor repayments is set for May 30, 2025, with over $11 billion expected to be repaid to creditors with claims of over $50,000.

Under FTX’s recovery plan, 98% of creditors are expected to receive at least 118% of their original claim value in cash.

How FTX users can complete KYC

Many FTX users have reported problems with the KYC process.

However, users who were unable to submit their KYC documentation can resubmit their application and restart the verification process, according to an April 5 X post from Sunil, FTX creditor and Customer Ad-Hoc Committee member.

Impacted users should email FTX support (support@ftx.com) to receive a ticket number, then log in to the support portal, create an account, and re-upload the necessary KYC documents.

FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, processed the first round of repayments in February, distributing $1.2 billion to creditors.

The crypto industry is still recovering from the collapse of FTX and more than 130 subsidiaries launched a series of insolvencies that led to the industry’s longest-ever crypto winter, which saw Bitcoin’s (BTC) price bottom out at around $16,000.

While not a “market-moving catalyst” in itself, the beginning of the FTX repayments is a positive sign for the maturation of the crypto industry, which may see a “significant portion” reinvested into cryptocurrencies, Alvin Kan, chief operating officer at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.