A Change.org petition urging the Chancellor to raise the tax threshold for state pensions in this year’s Spring Statement has been signed by almost 80,000 people, and is expected to pass the 100,000 milestone by 26th March, the date of the set-piece financial event.
The petition was launched by Dennis Reed, a longtime campaigner for older people’s rights. In 2024, Dennis successfully lobbied the then-Conservative Government to retain the triple lock for pensions in its final Budget; and built on his success by ensuring all major political parties also committed to the triple lock in their 2024 manifestos.
Despite this safeguard, Dennis is still concerned about the state of pensioners’ incomes; and says that a failure to increase the tax threshold would be a “double whammy” after the Government’s decision to means-test the Winter Fuel Allowance payment.
Explaining the problem with the current threshold, Dennis writes:
“Because of the frozen tax personal allowances, the top of the new state pension may breach the current personal allowance of £12570 in 2026. This would lead to the ludicrous situation of the state pension safety net, which has already been paid for through national insurance and tax, being taxed again. Many more pensioners across the country would be plunged into poverty as a result of political choice.”
Dennis says that people his organisation is supporting, like 75-year-old widower Colette, could end up falling into poverty if the threshold is not increased. Susan, another widower who signed the petition added
“I resent the fact that my husband and I paid full taxes all of our lives & yet still the pensions that we worked hard for are taxed, most unfairly, the tax taken from my state pension would help significantly towards my basic disability extras needed.”
You can find his petition, and read more about Colette’s story, at Change.org/StatePensionThreshold. If you’d like to speak with Dennis about the campaign, please contact press.uk@change.org
