Genuine question re pensioner fuel payment cut

Yes that's certainly possible if someone is on a disability benefit. I've just done a calculation for someone today, full new state pension, small private pension of about £280 a month and daily living PIP and savings of just over 10k and it's come out with a very small amount of pension credit but as we know even a very small amount will give this person the winter fuel payment, warm home discount , all rent and council tax paid paid, free dental care, free opticians. So this person would have almost £900 state pension, £280 private pension plus around £300 PIP so almost £1500 a month to live on after all rent and council tax paid. To be honest I don't think it's bad. I know people will say the PIP is extra money for having a disability. but it is still money to live off. having worked in benefits for seven years now I never fail to be amazed at how much some people are getting and also how little others get. There's a huge numbers of pensioners on disability benefits so the pension credit calculation is raised by £85 if they live alone due to the severe disability premium. Most of them are blown away when they not only get £108 a week Attendance Allowance awarded but then the exta £85 premium too. £185 a WEEK extra money. I have now idea how the country isn't bankrupt !! If you don't work in this area or have a relative getting it, then you won't know about it.

This would have been my first year of receiving it but I still think it’s the right decision, no matter which party made it.

Me too. It has been an eye-opener to me that there is so much resentment over a few hundred pounds to be given to a household where a pensioner is trying to ward off cold-related health problems.
I have contacted my 'labour' MP over this and signed the petition Age Uk are running (over 100,000 signature after 2 days)
Surely a more equitable cliff-edge to remove the allowance can be made

Well at least the junior doctors will be able to earn their pay rise this winter caring for the elderly with pneumonia. You'll still get people on here saying "bloody old people taking up all the hospital beds".

.......too badly 🙄

Ah, thank you!
But you didn't do to badly yourself! 👍

I'm only 62 and will only get the State Pension when I'm 67, not sure what will happen to my teensy bit of Additional (didn't opt out of SERPS) and my small amount of savings will be eaten up in the next year or 2. It seems I won't qualify for Pension Credit and it now seems that I won't get the Fuel Allowance either.

My current work source has dwindled to a trickle and all attempts to get a job that still allows me to care for my disabled ds has, so far, been fruitless.

As a woman it wasn't always so easy to get well paid jobs in the past and I managed to accrue enough paying-in to NI to qualify because I could see how having children meant that you became reliant on men or thrown to the wolves if you were brave enough to leave them and become a single parent.

And so.....there are millions of women currently alive who know exactly what I'm talking about and could easily fill in their experiences into that story. These are the women that include the ones like me that stood our ground and pushed for more women's equality in the workplace.

I'm not quite sure if it's turned out so well after all for either the younger women or specifically the older women, many of whom will remain poor and worse in old age as their young turn them out to the wolves.

What some people seem to forget is that elderly people living on low incomes are very vulnerable. They will be concerned at the high cost of fuel, and will turn the thermostat down accordingly. They find it difficult to keep warm by moving round unlike younger people. No one should live in fuel poverty. Its a shitty move.

Honestly winter fuel payment for many with disabilities and young children has already been cut .

people living in Spain were been given winter fuel payments .

If Labour cut nothing then the priority need would not be met , I don’t know how else it could have been cut any more fairly .

So it’s sensible to take away a benefit that an elderly person living on 12K a year had?

I'm a pensioner and I'm fine with it for me in my circumstances. I'm not in favour of someone on a full state pension not getting it and someone with the same income on pension credit getting it. You either need it on that income or you don't so I don't agree with the level of the cliff edge or on the other hand no one gets it.

I think it's awful! I looked after my lovely nan in her old age until she died, and she definitely felt the cold so much more than I and had her heating on much much more than I did. She was disabled and just above the threshold so she would not have gotten this money today. She sometimes wet herself as she couldn't get to the toilet in time so washer was on every day. She had electric and coal heating (coal is so expensive. And sticks and firelighters to get is going is also expensive.) We got her a inside electric air drier/heaters etc to make her life easier but it still costs money. They are taking from the most vulnerable!

There is enough to money to look after our pensioners. Well there would be if we didn't give it away to others that have never paid Ni or tax in this country. After all, surely our taxes and NI contributions are to look after our country?

I did not know that. I am this demographic and still working and I get nothing free except prescriptions.

60 year olds get free bus passes in Liverpool.

QueenOfTheNihilist · Today 10:29
I would have been outraged… and I am outraged that Labour have done this too - I am a Labour voting pensioner.

On MN there is a widespread belief that pensioners are mostly wealthy, not feeling the COLC at all, and can manage sky high winter bills and henceforth live on a dwindling income in real terms so the triple lock can be abandoned.

Good for you all with your wealthy cruise-going ILs…

Meanwhile, everyone I know is living frugally and quite fearful of the future.

I am not saying the WFP should be paid across the board, but the threshold hold is WAY too low. People in good occupational pensions, index linked public sector, big savings pots etc, all pay TAX. It ought to be easy peasy to set a threshold of income, identified through HMRC , above which the payment is not made.

Lots of pensioners are not enjoying comfortable incomes at all.

We weren’t feckless and greedy… lost if reasons;
If we bought flats or a house the most common thing to do was buy an endowment, at which point we were told that it would pay off the mortgage AND give us a sum for retirement. Then it all went tits up and many people were left with a shortfall on mortgage, never mind money for cruises.

Other people spent more than half their working life before 60 believing they would get a pension at 60. Then thought ‘ok I’ll work till 66’ but got ill or worn out , or dud last minute saving but couldn’t save enough

Many of us worked our whole employed lives with no employer contribution at all, until the last legal minute, at the lowest legal level.

Many of us just never earned much. No free childcare hours etc…

Had savings but lost to divorce

Many reasons.

Just because YOU know wealthy pensioners does not mean it’s the whole picture.

The threshold should not have been set so low.

This totally ^
my parents are fractionally over the threshold and l know they will feel the lack of the WFP.

The problem is pre retirement age, people have no idea how hard life feels once you start getting ailments/illnesses, feel the cold more...in my DMs case Dementia, joints start to hurt etc.
I don't begrudge Pensioners who earn up to say 20K a year getting the benefit.
Younger people SHOULD take the burden.

👏. It’s not sustainable. Those young and capable, should be working. It’s no good blaming pensioners because they’ve had more kids than they can provide for.🤷‍♀️

Actually, this post puts it much better than me 🙂

I totally agree with you.
All this pensioner bashing !
I can’t afford to have more than two children & don’t get child benefit . I work and I work and still struggle due to COL - no free kids clubs for me - all top dollar!
To be quite frank I’m sick of subsidising all these women who keep having kids & don’t know who the father is. Not true in many cases - just a way to get more money. It’s the working poor we should be helping! What about them.. hard enough being a working women & qualifying for nothing …
As quite rightly said, pensioners can’t add to their income and many no longer are able to work .
Plenty on work related benefits can work & won’t work and some have never worked. How is this sustainable?
Downsizing - to where we’ve known since the 60’s we are an aging population- but no provision were made to build suitable housing for older people to downsize to .
People need to start bucking up their ideas and realise the gravy train is no longer here … & start taking personal responsibility for their actions & decisions in life!

How do you know they don’t care? I’m very aware and care very much about cliff edges , clawbacks, childcare etc. Why does it always become a generational tussle?

What cliffedges are you referring to that are as low a level of this one?

If CB - the cliff-edge is over £50k and who are you to say that we did not care - we did not fill pages of censure here at anyone who complained such as has happened in this case.
Also the sums involved are vastly differant.
No cliff-edge has hitherto been invoked for a mere £200 per annum per household. But this £200 can be a life and health saver for the person who lost it.

Do not suggest this. It’s apparantly an abhorrent thought lol 🙄

Not usually they can’t.