a more important point.
There was a notable realignment of public spending along the #age divide. As #politicaleconomist we know why this is so (votes).
Public spending became massively more #agebiased.
Money was shifted from the current working population (in work benefits), the future working generation (education), to, well, "the past" (pensions).
I am not saying that the State Pension is super generous, far from it, but to claim that there was no austerity is just disingenuous.