Scrap triple lock that protects state pensions, says thinktank chief

Paul Johnson, head of the IFS, says today's pensioners have fared extraordinarily well relative to their predecessors

Pensioners have benefited from an "amazing" period of rising living standards relative to the rest of society, and the government should scrap its triple lock that protects the value of the state pension, according to Paul Johnson, head of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

In a lecture on Tuesday evening, the thinktank's director, whose pithy interventions framed the economic debate in the run-up to May's general election, argues that today's pensioners have fared extraordinarily well relative to their predecessors.