How much state pension payments are currently worth depends on when someone was born.

Men born before April 6, 1951 and women born before April 6, 1953 are entitled to the basic state pension. This is currently worth £137.60 per week, which works out to £7,155 a year.

The triple lock has been Government policy since its introduction on 2011 by the Coalition government.

But due to suggestions that the wage growth we have seen is artificial, speculation has mounted that the triple lock may be suspended this year as the UK looks to recover from the pandemic.

Questions of fairness have also been raised, as last year in a time when millions of workers had to countenance pay cuts, the state pension continued to grow, creating a disparity.

The wage growth of eight percent has been labelled artificial by experts, who say it reflects a wage recovery to the levels seen before the pandemic, when millions of furloughed workers received 80 percent of their wages.

Experts have warned that this bill may yet rise as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has forecast that wage growth will climb to 10 percent.

Rishi Sunak faces the unenviable situation of having to make a decision that will anger his party’s electoral base, which skews towards older demographics, or will lead to the Government purse shelling out even more money at a time when the coffers are strained, to put it lightly.

Furthermore, suspending the triple lock would break his party’s manifesto pledge to keep it in place.