Calls to remove the automatic 2.5pc yearly boost to the state pension could mean retirees are forced to pay for the billions of pounds the Government is spending on support packages for workers.

Older people’s spending power could be at risk if the Government removes one of the three guarantees behind the state pension’s annual increase. Currently, the payment rises every year by the highest of wage growth, inflation or 2.5pc – a system known as the “triple lock”.

The Social Market Foundation, a think tank, has urged the Government to abandon this system to ensure the economic recovery from the coronavirus crisis is fair to working-age households. It argued that any future austerity programme should not favour pension spending over working-age welfare.

Scrapping the triple lock in favour of a double lock by removing the promise of the 2.5pc increase could save the Government £20bn over five years, according to the think tank’s estimates. The state pension would rise in line with either wage growth or inflation, which are both expected to be lower as a result of coronavirus.

“Those savings would help meet the huge costs arising from the lockdown. Shaving £4bn a year from the growth of the £100bn pension bill is not too much to ask,” the Social Market Foundation wrote in its report.