Nick Robinson on the Today programme said that people affected by withdrawing the Winter Fuel Allowance were "the wartime generation". AIBU to think he's wrong?

Yes the generation born into, and at the end of war had a hard start to their life. Does that mean we have to keep paying them all hundreds of pounds a year forever, even if they are rich?

What about children born into poverty and hardship now? Why aren't we giving them a winter fuel allowance?

£20k or £25k is significantly higher than NMW which is just under £18k!

@HauntedBungalow National Service was “peacetime” conscription for men. It lasted until 1960 with the last conscripts finishing in 1963. They were deployed to conflicts in Cyprus, Korea, Kenya, Middle East etc.

As for firestorm may I respectfully suggest you research what happened to Coventry.

I consider the Wartime generation as anyone born before the end of World War II. They were evacuated, had to live with rationing until 1954, had parents, primarily fathers, they didn’t see for years. There were no mobile phones, face time etc.

WRT the Winter Fuel Allowance, most reasonable people don’t have a problem with means testing it’s the very low limit at which it has been set. If they had set it at £20k or £25k most people would have said fair enough.

Remember women, in particular, did not have the opportunities to save into a personal/works pension let alone access jobs and careers that are now open to us all. This was the generation of women who had to fight for equality e.e sex discrimination Act, Equal Pay Act. Remember some of these women had to leave their job if they became pregnant.

I think the technical term for people who were children during the war are the silent generation, and some of them will be the hardest hit by this measure as they have been entitled to the higher rate WFA and possibly not have the benefits that have made some of the boomer generation wealthy

For all the posters who despise the rich boomers (and not all boomer generation are rich) what happens when these people die, will posters then despise the people who inherit their wealth

@HFJ yes. And harping back to the war generation is nonsense. I can understand that we owe veterans a debt. But their kids who endured rationing? No. I wouldn't say they had things any harder than plenty of other kids who came before or after them. And there are plenty of all age groups who need help. "working hard all their life" should not be a reason to get handed money they don't need taken from people who might!
And using the argument that they don't want to spend money because they're used to being frugal and are worried they might run out is nuts!

Most of the posts here appear to be using exactly the same narrative. I maintain that regardless of being and feeling hard done by in the past, we pay taxes now to invest in our country’s infrastructure and support the most needy. There are children right now living in B&Bs. They deserve help, not wealthy pensioners.

Oh and I forgot the locking up of children and young people because ‘protect the NHS’.

Because of what they did and voted for: massive sell off of social housing, refusal to allow housing development because ‘not in keeping with the area’, expectation that the state will fix their health because ‘cradle to grave’, not speaking up as governments introduced massive tuition fees and high-interest loans for young (so they start life in massive amounts of debt), voting for massive increases in immigration, turning a blind eye as water companies sold off to allow sewage to be pumped into rivers….the list goes on. We’re all in this together, apparently. Except when we’re not.

Rationing ended after the war. Final restrictions lifted in 1954.

That’s a tin hat theory. But if your point was everybody has forgotten about the clusterfuck that was Covid policies, nope, Boris carries the weight of that legacy around with him like Marley’s ghost.

But what has that got to do with the WFA?

This, its obvious what he meant. People who were evacuated as children, lost educational opportunities, perhaps delayed starting their working life.

Meanwhile, everyone has completely forgotten how many died as a result of a failed, and deliberate, herd immunity experiment.

My relatives are in their late 80s & 90s & I have neighbours in their 90s as well.

I have just checked
2x big bags of logs from the local supplier for the wood burner are £210.
Plus there will be a cost for kindling & fire lighters.

Plus there is the cost of oil for the radiators & the cost of electricity.

Not all pensioners are swimming in money !

Yes, I did grow up hearing stories about WW11 & my Uncle was sent to Burma.

My parents and inlaws were born before and during the war and whilst I wouldn't particularly describe them as the wartime generation, they do remember those days and the suffering that came with it. But neither are they boomers; they're born from 1948 to 1962 and the younger boomers won't have retired yet. So the elderly span both pre war, wartime and the older boomer generations. Regardless, the wartime experiences of the elderly are relevant because their experiences will have affected them throughout their lives - not just death, loss and abandonment but the need to scrimp and save. When we cleared my late FILs house last year, we unearthed an almost hoarding situation when he kept everything that could be reused in some way. It was a humbling situation. As for winter warmth, some elderly people still hold onto the mentality of making-do and will not apply for help despite needing it, because that's what they're used to doing. I feel very fortunate not to have gone through what my relatives went through and I am proud of their contributions and resilience. This isn't to say I don't have my issues (raising disabled children is one big challenge in our society at the moment) but I don't begrudge other vulnerable people of the support they need.

I actually feel a bit sorry for Keir Starmer already. His legacy is going to be killing old people. Even if the old people die with cold as one contributing factor the press will spin it to read that the blame lies solely at the feet of Labour.

And Brexit, don’t forget Brexit!!!!! I’ll take my dying breath still hearing about fucking Brexit abd Nigel Farage and those bloody buses.

Absolutely this!

There is very definitely still a wartime generation. My dad was born in 1935. He's not a baby boomer, he's from the Silent Generation who fought or grew up during the war.

He remembers being evacuated to Wales during the Blitz at 5yo. He played on bombsites in London and many parts of it were still rubble for years after the war ended. He and his family lived in the 2 bedroom upstairs flat of a victorian terrace, the new towns with houses and gardens wouldn't be built for years yet. Rationing didn't end until he was 19.

He didn't go to university, he learned to be an electrician in the RAF during his National Service, which boomers never had to do.

How embarrassing to be so rude.

I misread the post. My point remains though that I suspect Nick Robinson was actually referring to those born slightly after the war. His intention was to elicit sympathy for those who fought for the country. What he actually meant was those who may have endured rationing and rebuilding the country after the war. I don't doubt that was hard, but it's not the same. And we're now trying to rebuild the country after the Tories, so all this misty eyed nostalgia is off the table.

I take the "wartime generation" to be the one immediately before the so-called Boomers.

That being so, there are still a sizeable number around and I think he was right.

Another ignorant statement
My parent was born in 1937, lived through the entire war and the crap that came after in terms of rationing into the 50s, national Service, and other austerity measures
He does not have all this endless money, property and lifestyle of an insta influencer that not only the OP, but many ignorant people seem to think anyone over 80 has. Not everyone in that generation fell into that 'sweet spot' you seem to think exists where they all had a job, could buy property for 2s and 6d and were given free coal every week

Isn't that just an example of the Labour-bias BBC suggesting that removing the WFA is going to have little impact, as most of the 'wartime generation' are not with us anymore. BBC presenters certainly won't have worry about their bills.

The dismissal of the hardships faced by children during the war shows a real lack of understanding of how it was for children then.

"The war affected the health of all the population, especially children. Common health problems included head lice, skin diseases and poor nutrition caused by rationing of food, clothing, soap and footwear. But the mental health of young people also suffered.
Ten percent of the country’s population was evacuated and most were children. They needed support to deal with the effects of separation and loss of homes and family members. And there was a general lack of childhood: there were no new toys or clothes, and children helped out with the war effort from collecting salvage and running errands to helping with farming."

And imagine the effect of this on children.......

The British pet massacre was a week-long event in 1939 in which an estimated 400,000 cats and dogs, a quarter of England's pet population, were killed so that food used for animals could be reserved to prepare for the war.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_pet_massacre
https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/school-radio/articles/zr38cqt

www.rcpch.ac.uk/news-events/news/carrot-day-child-health-during-world-war-ii

It's really worth remembering that those old folk you see shuffling round the Sainsbury's were those children.