Genuine question re pensioner fuel payment cut

I consider myself a bit old for mumsnet ( more gransnet or great gransnet!) as I'm retired and children all grown up.
I married very young. Lived in a very remote area and it was never even likely I would stay on at school or gain any qualifications. I was allowed a " little job" until my first child was born. We had no car ,there was a mobile shop once per week and housing was ,by today's standards ,primitive. I and the few other mums I knew accepted it. It was a man's world ,housekeeping was doled out ( infrequently in some cases) and apart from the odd day trip, no holidays .I did not know anyone who had childcare apart from the local landowner who had a nanny. I expect some had family help but most mums i knew stayed at home .If any elderly relatives needed care " the daughter" was assumed to be responsible. ( even in my case if there was a single unemployed adult son at home) But we had community and we coped.
My marriage was difficult and what I experienced as emotional,physical and financial abuse was eventually revealed as my husbands illness. When I couldn't stand anymore I left and he has now passed away.
I did eventually gain qualifications and worked happily supporting myself and on my own until 2 years past state retirement.i couldn't afford to pay into a pension . Then I became unwell and retired. During the time i was working I paid back tens of thousands of pounds of debt from the last years of my marriage . It was hard but I am a good manager . I rent ( lived in a tied cottage during marriage on very low wage) never had a chance to buy .I am not bitter. The past can't be changed and many people were in the same boat. I was looking forward to my retirement and to having a dog. I have always wanted a pet and I thought it would be company. Vets bills and cost of living being as they are I darent even consider it now.
I have £3 above cut off for claiming pension credit.i inherited a tiny pension ,less than £10 a month.I still have friends from when I worked but am losing touch with them because even a coffee out is something I can't often afford. They are busy with work and family and can rarely visit me. I dread the winter fuel bills and cannot see much hope .
It does hurt a bit to have people assume that ALL pensioners are living it up at the expense of the young.
I can well remember the stress of trying to feed and clothe children with little money . The strain of paying for childcare must be immense . I admire anyone who struggles on ,juggling time,money and emotional strength to work and bring up their children.
In spite of the difficulties I'm grateful for a lot of things.
Please lets try to understand that many people struggle but they hide it. I was a bit upset at the loss of the fuel payment as it means a lot to me ,but i know that the country cant afford it . I just hope that we as a country can get out of the mess we are in ,and sort health and education as a priority.

They set up bogus companies and said they could produce PPE. They couldn’t. They pocketed billions on false pretences which isn’t ok is it

If they want to axe the winter fuel payment for those who are very wealthy, which I agree with, they need to axe the universal free breakfast and free school meals for those who can afford to feed their kids

Well @ruby1957 I disagree. I don’t know what you’re looking at.
I don’t work in benefits anymore, I’m in fraud. However I’ve just gone on to turn to us and done a trial calc with a full state pension (plus other benefits I mentioned) and it’s come through with £78.45 a week guarantee credit.

My parents are not well off but don't need the fuel allowance. Last year they gave it to me to help with my bills.

But they could try to find a job!

Will the peoply who sunbathed on furlough repay their money, will the people on UC who got a £20 uplift, will the people who got bounce back loans, will the people who wasted millions of covid tests when they were 'free' also pay it back. Of course not.

What about the millions spent on furlough?

It will probably cost more for them to set up an "investigation committee" and the legal costs etc involved than the amount of money "given away" in the first place. That's what normally happens.

Not since 2016 - things have changed - I can only assume your benefits information is out of date - do keep up!

No they can't.

You go first then.

Given away to bogus companies their mates set up. I believe Labour want this money back and are investigating

Precisely

Funny how doing something about this is never touted as a means to tighten our belt 🤔

This isn't being done simply to spite pensioners. The reality is that the country cannot afford everything. Cuts need to made somewhere. If not here, then what should be cut?

Disability payments? Universal credit? NHS? Child benefit?

How about the illegal immigrant bill? They are paying fortunes putting them up in hotels. It would be cheaper to patrol our waters.

There wasn't any money. It was all borrowed. Now we're having to pay it back, and at higher interest rates too! We're paying more in interest on the national debt than we're spending on education!

And likewise should be means tested. We can't afford giving freebies away to people who can pay for them. Even worse when people with higher than average incomes are getting freebies, and not even paying as much tax as a worker on the same income (i.e. no NIC!).

This isn't being done simply to spite pensioners. The reality is that the country cannot afford everything. Cuts need to made somewhere. If not here, then what should be cut?

Disability payments? Universal credit? NHS? Child benefit?

Decisions need to be made and I think that this is the right one. As it is, young people are set to be net contributors to the welfare state, while current pensioners will be net beneficiaries.

Yes it's sad that some people will struggle with heating bills, but plenty of working people do too.

People are demanding more and more costly services (e.g. mental health provision on the nhs), but not coming up with any solutions on where the money should come from.

This is often said, unfortunately it doesn't apply for huge numbers of pensioners. Sizeable numbers have been low earners who always rented. Others live in modest homes, they don't have the funds to cover moving costs, their property wouldn't fund the purchase of a bungalow or flat, as in my area at least these are more expensive than terrace and older small semi detached. It's only those higher up the property ladder who are relatively well off who can sell up, buy a new property and still have money in the bank to supplement retirement income. These people tend to have private/occupational pensions too, and aren't in receipt of state top ups. Those at the lower end are stuck.Their life circumstances simply don't give them the choices many take for granted. I'm sad that this fact doesn't seem to register with so many on Mumsnet.

👏👏👏

My only issue is people have short memories, and won't remember this when it comes to voting them out.

It's funny how its 'needed' when its labour doing it but evil incarnate when its the tories.

What about a single person?

Yeah I only worked in benefits for 17 years 🤣what do I know eh. There’s this thing, called an applicable amount and premiums. We actually had one lottery winner who won millions ask to retain their pension credit and they could as they had an AIP.

You can have thousands in the bank get and receive pension credit. 🤷🏼‍♀️You just incur tariff income.

What’s actually embarrassing is the fact that there was no need for the austerity cuts. There was plenty of money when covid hit. Most of it went to their Tory mates.

This is embarrassing

The Tories used it for austerity after Labour and Labour always said there were different ways of doing it