Can’t just be me who is sick of the moaning about the private school VAT and winter fuel payments

I think what will inevitably happen is that the bar for a condition to be seen as a disability will be raised. Criteria will get much stricter and struggles that are currently seen as requiring of additional financial support will be normalised and support withdrawn. This is how attendance allowance for older adults works in relation to PIP for younger ones. There is no allowance for reduced mobility, because reduced mobility is so common in elderly people is not seen as outside of the norm. If 50% and rising of young people struggle with MH and/or cognitive issues, then that will gradually be seen as the norm too, and only the most severally affected entitled to help.

Bushmillsbabe pension credit kicks in with small amount of savings and small additional income so worth checking if your neighbour does qualify. I think the savings threshold and income should be increased as most pensioners are keen to have some savings for essential household repairs and funeral costs.

However generally many pensioners are doing ok. The argument that "I've worked all my life and paid NI" doesn't really apply since most people take out more than they pay in..if you factor in schooling, free Uni (for older pepple) health, free prescriptions and care costs.

I would say a bigger issue is people living a sedentary lifestyle - poor diet leading to obesity and deseases auch as diabetes and other illnesses associated with being overweight. Children not being taken out but propped in front of an ipad, or gaming as they get older. People not exercising. The amount of people you walk past daily who are overweight is really sad to see.

Here is another OP bashing pensioners. The state pension is higher than UC for single people but those people could work and improve their income. Pensioners cannot and having worked and paid tax and NI for 40 or 50 years. Disabled people get more than basic UC. The average single pensioner income is around half of a full time worker on minimum wage.
Child Benefit is paid to households with an income up to £60000. Winter fuel payment should be at the same level. Child Benefit threshold could be lowered but either way it should be equal.
As for tax on private schools, I have no sympathy whatsoever as everyone can access state schools and sending your children private is a privilege most of us cannot consider.

Iagree with you in the main. It shouldn't have always been means tested when it existed for all. That's why quite a few of the luvvie actors launched on their social accounts that they wanted to opt out, or pay it back... they were accused by many of bragging if you remember.
However there is a part of me which wonders why did the 90 year old move stay in that house. Why did your parents choose a different (well insulated) house?
I'm not at all trying to say "It's their decisions, it's their fault", but at the same time I'd love to know how it can be expected for people to be able to plan how much money they need for the rest of their lives.
Of course being 90 now means retiring in 1994, and having possibly worked since 1954. People were actively told that if they paid their stamps (NI) that they would be taken care of later in life. All those governments from then until now (no matter which party) didn't want to realise the massive problems that they ignored and past onto the next government. They hoped that people would die sooner, and inflation wouldn't occur.

The article said a 50% increase in ten years of claims for disability benefits for children I think if I remember correctly. Sorry but this is massive and completely unsustainable in the longer term. not just the costs of the actual disability benefits, but the SENCO's , all the extra Universal Credit that is paid through disabled child element etc. It's going to need to be addressed before long. The article raised concerns that disabled young people are falling off a cliff edge with benefits once the DLA stops as many are not then eligible for adult disability benefits.

I know this is off topic, but why are there so many? I do't doubt that kids need help, I don't doubt that the covid lockdowns had a massive impact on them, but at the same time, there seems (to this niave person) to have been a massive increase in the last 10 years of kids being seen as SEN. I have family and friends with SEN kids, but although we can see the kids are affected, there doesn't seem rhyme or reason why some kids struggle and are eventually diagnosed and some kids just fly through school and some kids struggle what looks identicallly but are not diagnosed as autistic or the other conditions which fall under the banner.

Hopefully he’s a secret millionaire and just a miser.

He needs to get it sorted pronto because he definitely shouldn’t be paying tax on an income under the personal allowance threshold. I imagine he has income he’s hiding from you.

Apologies for being forensic - it’s all those SENCO years applying for EHCPs. I have never had one go to tribunal. I have always worked in the most deprived and underfunded boroughs in England. I’m well aware the system is broken - it’s why I left. I still have to question why the SEN system is broken after 14 years of Conservative government and how Labour is going to make it worse.

I have no issue with children being funded for specialist schools if mainstream can’t meet their needs.

I did my six years’ postgraduate SEN qualifications whilst working full time as a single parent. Sometimes I wonder why I did ten years at university to leave my career at 50, but then I remember I burned out from trying to work within a broken system that became more and more broken in recent years, and that I helped vulnerable children and their parents for as long as I could.

Maybe some people don't think that parents who choose to breed should get money from the government!

You could argue that the cruise lady has been very sensible - she’s taken the money in her property and enjoyed her retirement with it, and now with not a penny to her name the tax payer will fund her care in old age. Who’s the daft one, her or the people that fund themselves?

No doubt you too 'moan' about things which impact on you, are you saying that other people are not allowed to do the same? Maybe people resent the benefits given to people simply for breeding, just a whatever, not an opinion of mine. For some people the loss of the Winter Fuel payment will have a severe impact if they are just over the financial line, in the same way that child benefit payments were reduced or lost because it was based on individual incomes rather than an aggregation of household income.

Yes sorry - before the changes.

No more fascinating than your claim that less advantaged people are so stupid and impressionable they need the Labour party to 'whip them up' before they notice wealth inequality. Or your claim to know people support this policy because they are 'angry' 'bitter' and 'jealous' of a few people who can't afford VAT on school fees.

Most people I know have done the masters part time over 2 years so they could continue working as they are mainly in their 20’s/30s with kids having returned to education and retrained as teachers. They’ve obviously change training requirements since I explored doing it myself before lockdown (I wonder if this might possibly be because they were struggling to recruit people into training and the shortage of staff was worsening 🤔).

And even if/although this has changed it still doesn’t affect the fact that it will take several years to provide a significant number of SEN staff when there is already a shortage - of both existing SENs and qualified teachers interested in transitioning into it. My DD was given a IEP in 2015, my DS did/does have a ECHP. Had I known my post would be forensically parsed I would have clarified. The point is that it is hard in many areas to get one without taking the LEA to court. I live near a specialist private school for boys - 60% are LEA funded, many after taking the LEA to court - and they are all placed in that school because the local state school do not have the staff or the resources.

And with respect to the rest of your post, I think you are being disingenuous. There is a current teaching shortage because of both staff retention and failure to recruit. New graduates are leaving university with £45k+ of student finance debt. They are seeking jobs where they have earning potential so they can pay this off. Teaching salaries (and working conditions) do not attract them when weighted against this.

Private schools will not be generating 20% tax on current fee income - as many as 10% of students will leave; other schools will lower their fees to offset the 20% increase; others (like my children’s) will combine lowering fees with offsetting VAT due against increasing other estate income, such as wedding and event income etc. Once they become registered for VAT it means they can also claim back VAT charged on purchases/expenditure - so all the goods and services they buy in which charge VAT they can now offset against the VAT they charge on fees. Most private schools anticipate the net VAT owed will be approx 7-8%. So the govt will likely generate less than 40% of the revenue they are anticipating. The government are utter idiots for not appreciating that they will not be scooping 20% VAT on fees, because of the offset. Any builder, plasterer or plumber can explain this impact.

The government may plan to put some of this (now much reduced) revenue into additional SEN provision, but as I’ve stated it is already woeful, hence many parents having moved their kids into the private sector. And where, due to the length of days and access to free after school ECAs until 6pm, they are more able to take full time jobs (I and other mothers have done this to pay for it); these parents, now at the mercy of state school hours may no longer be able to work full-time in new schools, meaning less income tax revenue. And this is assuming there are places at local state schools - they are all over-subscribed in my area so new applicants often wait years for places and join a waiting list that is double digit long for each year, albeit it those with ECHPs will go to the top of that list… again shunting kids from poorer families without access to private assessments further down the list, but hey, it’s about an equal and fair system, right?

The system is broken, with decades of underfunding and provision is overstretched to the point of being non-existent in many areas, even if not in yours. It will be vulnerable children from families who cannot afford to get private assessments who will miss out. These are often children with parents equally challenged by ND/SEN and having been failed by the education system in earlier generations and less able to advocate for them. Labour, through sheer spite and ideology, will ultimately hurt the most vulnerable children in our society by their shortsightedness - so who cares if a few privately-funded, vulnerable children get caught in the crosshairs on the way down?

Yes exactly. It's totally overwhelming for many especially if you have no family to help you as many don't. I see a lot of older people living in big houses full of junk/ hoarding. There's no way they could move/ downsize without significant help from elsewhere.

The future actually is really quite frightening. NHS pensions and lump sums are massive. Now I don't begrudge people that have worked hard getting them but many on my fb feed ( nurses) are currently getting their huge lump sums at 55. My own lump sum which I can't claim until 60 is forcast to be £75k and £10k annual pension ( if I have understood the statement correctly ) and whilst working in the NHS off and on for thirty years much of that was part time. Many people who worked full time will be hugely more than that. I think they may have changed it now but how is this affordable with so many less people now paying so little tax to fund these public sector pensions? I know the good NHS pension is a factor which makes it attractive for people to work there and probably one of the only good things about working for the NHS !!

You must live in very large houses then, rutland is the most expensive area for council tax in the country and a band d house there is around £2500 a year, and it’s only when you get up go band g and h that it’s anywhere near £4000. Could your neighbour not downsize? What the point in her living in a massive house alone thst she can’t afford to heat or repair on such a low income. Ideally this should have been done years ago rather than getting to this point at age 90 when it would be unsettling. Alternatively maybe she could look into some sort of equity release, I know these aren’t a good deal but at least it would free up some cash for her now if she’s struggling so much.

It's not that easy to just downsize. Moving house is one of the most stressful things to do. Imagine being on your own in your 70s/80s and having to put your house on the market, deal with estate agents, solicitors etc, having to decide what furniture to take because you're moving into a much smaller place. I can understand why the elderly only move when they absolutely have no other choice.

The last time we moved we were in our 30s and I remember saying to my husband that I never wanted to move again. I can't imagine trying to do that as an elderly person and with no support.

Are they all claiming pension credit then? Or is this what they used to get before the changes?

There are winners and losers in these political policies. There will be those who will most definitely lose because they're on the margins, not quite earning the low enough amount for eligibility to the WFP.

if we set those people to one side, because we know there's no such thing as "fair" in life and they are sadly the people who will lose from the government's policy, there are others to feel a disproportionate emotional response to loss versus the equivalent gain. It's called Prospect Theory.

The people the OP is talking about are those who bemoan the loss of the WFP that isn't a real need, they didn't have it before and they have got used to being given it each year. They like the idea of having the spenders given to them which has for years cushioned the blow of fuel costs, when in reality they know they can survive without and they have the ability to keep warm in winter. They're aggrieved about the loss, they don't need it but the gap it leaves is more painful to them than the reality of the loss. Human nature.

The nhs expanded greatly in the 70s those people are now coming up to retirement - and remember people are living a liooong time - goidness know how decades of pensions will be afforded.
This applies to state pension too- work for 50 years - pension for 25-30