Laura Suter: So, the state pension is the amount of money that you get from the government when you retire. So currently you get that at age 66. And at the moment it is just shy of £180 a week. To be eligible for this it doesn't matter how many other pensions you have or what other income you have. It's not means tested. But instead, you need to have a certain number of years of qualifying National Insurance. So you need to have paid enough National Insurance over your lifetime. At the moment, that means that you have to have 35 qualifying years. But if you have 10 years or more, you might just get slightly less than that full state pension amount.
The triple-lock is a Conservative government policy that was brought in and will last until 2024 at the earliest. And it is, in short it is intended to mean that the pension keeps pace with rising prices. So it means that the state pension each year will rise by either inflation which is consumer prices index or by the average amount wages have increased or by 2.5%, if those two previous measures are lower than that.