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?

They could also have kept it but done away with the triple lock.

I'm fully supportive of ensuring those with the most need receive the most support - people of all ages across the board. There's simply no room in the current financial climate for one population demographic to cling onto a universally applied benefit, while others make sacrifices. Those in most need of WFA will still receive it. Let's not forget that the government also took the decision to keep the two child benefit cap. While this drew some criticism, it died a quick death compared to this WFA issue. How many of those without young dependents to support were as vocal around the benefit cap decision as they are about WFA?

They didn't put it in their manifesto for one or both of these reasons:

1. They didn't intend to do it until they realised the full extent of the UK's dire financial situation.

1. Older people are statistically more likely to vote Conservative. It took a swing of pension age voters from Tory to Labour to secure a large majority. It would have been political suicide to have put this in their manifesto - and it could well have ended their chances of winning. And then we'd all be whinging because we were stuck with the Tories for another term.

The current generation of pensioners might have caught a bit of the war and post war austerity as very young babies / toddlers but they’ve had it very easy in so many ways compared to subsequent generations. And they really do like being reminded of that for some reason.

How embarrassing to be so ignorant. No-one who was born during/just before the war is a boomer.

I have a real dislike of the endless obsession with covid lockdowns. Contrary to what most of MN seems to believe they were nothing like as damaging as WWII was and yet posters on MN will be banging on about how hard it was until the day they die.

I suspect those who are "bored" with WWII wouldn't have coped with it for more than a week had they been there at the time, and their mental health would have been shot to pieces with the restrictions imposed, let alone the threat of danger. It's very easy to dismiss something which has had no effect on you.

Some posters on this thread seem to be rather lacking in maths skills! My DF died last year and also wasn't in nappies during the war years.

So Boomers then. The truly disadvantaged ones will still receive it.

Cleary for the OP it means anyone who is given money that she feels they do not deserve because 'all old people are massively rich and live in mansions and take 609 holidays per annum and it is not fair'

Mumsnet is an overwhelmingly middle class place. My mother went to New York in April and is currently in Tuscany. I retired at 55, as did my husband. I hope to be doing the same as my 85 year old mother at her age. There are many rich pensioners and many who are much poorer. Perhaps the poorer ones are focusing on getting through each day rather than posting on here.

If you are are an 85 year old woman now you -

Spent the first 6 years of your life being raised in a war where your parents were often working for the war effort/away fighting.

You were 16 before rationing ended...so all aspects of your diet, clothing and household goods were controlled and limited.

Were 31 before you were entitled to equal pay. (1970)

Were 35 before you could take out a loan without a male cosigning the paperwork for you. (1974)

Were 43 before it became illegal to refuse to serve a woman in a pub. (1982)

Nobody gets it easy.

Not actually true though is it? I'd argue a young baby, especially a newborn is every bit as frail and vulnerable as an elderly person.
It should be means tested across the population, or at least across vulnerable groups. NOT given universally to everyone aged 65 and over.

Those are the mumsnetters who will be inheriting that disgusting inheritance from their despicable wealthy parents 🤣

Agree. It’d be more accurate to say baby boomer generation, no?

You do realise that you live the life you live precisely because of the things those people went through.

Always amuses me how so many pensioners known by mumsnetters are jetting all round the world and going on cruises and buying new cars.

My mother was born during the war. She's now 85. Rationing didn't end until 1957. She well remembers her mother skinning rabbits that she had 'acquired'. Meat was scarce. She said once ,as an off the cuff comment, "I never asked what she had to do to get those". She is not worried about the loss of the winter fuel allowance. She's currently on a train heading to Florence . Many of her friends are very, very worried.

Good God.
This is awful.
43,000 men, women and children killed violently and here it's dismissed as 'fuck all'.

Yes. Being forced into it by people frothing about WFA. That's my point.

When the media/anti-Labour politicians use emotive language about the "wartime generation" and daily mail sad face pensioners over a £200 annual payment it naturally makes people reflect on how they would manage on £200 less a year. And the reality is the majority of people have had to cut their cloth to manage much bigger financial surprises than that.

I think there is a balanced conversation to be had about the poorest pensioners who are just above the PC threshold and what can be done to support them. Maybe using income tax as a measure, or raising the PC threshold by £200. But blanket "Labour are betraying the wartime generation!" when pensioners as a group have lower levels of poverty than either children or working age adults, is disingenuous and divisive.

www.jrf.org.uk/uk-poverty-2024-the-essential-guide-to-understanding-poverty-in-the-uk#:~:text=Children%20have%20consistently%20had%20the,%2F95%20to%202021%2F22.

For most pensioners, its a £200 benefit, for a pensioner needing their heating on a lot, its about 1 months worth of energy.

So what do they do for the rest of the winter.

What i don't get is why Labour were so stupid to cut this in the way they did, should have just taken it off higher rate tax paying pensioners.

its started a free for all on attacking Labour now.

I meet lots of people who were affected by the war, even if they were too young to fight. People who lost fathers or uncles, people who were evacuated to stay with strangers as children. These people worked hard and payed into the system their whole lives and now they have to struggle to pay their heating bills.

This!

Rationing went on for a very long time after the war, times were hard, and children born during these years were most certainly affected by war. I think anyone over about 75 would probably have been affected by the aftermath of the war.

I am not sick of people who were alive during the war talking about the war because it is their personal history. I am sick of the fetishisation of it by our governments and companies. I don't wear a poppy.

There are plenty of actual, real wars going on right now which is where I prefer to place my attention .

The problem is that there are a great many pensioners who are struggling financially, who receive the state pension, but are not eligible for pension credit, so are badly affected by the loss of this £300. The state pension is only just over £200 a week, to cover bills, house repairs if you own a home, and day to day living.

Most normal working people don't get much more than the state pension, so are left struggling with the cost of living crisis.

Of course there are wealthy pensioners who misused theirs, so it could be means tested and just given to the poorer pensioners, although this might be difficult logistically.

12.6 million in total, so about 25% of pensioners are millionaires. Similarly around 28% rely only on the state pension with no private pensions. Clearly one group here is in need of help and the other isn't. It's a poorly targeted benefit that's not doing what it should.

It's worth noting that the pension increased by £800 this year and will go up by another £500 in April. There is a good argument that it is better to focus on keeping the basic pension at a liveable level rather than trying to top it up with random one off allowances.

My god the stuff I read on here never fails to amaze me.

You are sick of hearing about WW2 lol? I guess you are also a bit bored of listening to stories about mass genocide ……. Hang on….. no we’re not bored of mass genocide because there are marches every weekend with placards screaming about the genocide in Palestine. So it can’t be that 🤔

Maybe you are sick of hearing about masses of young people dying for their country in horrendous circumstances because at the time they thought it would save their families from being under the rule of a dictatorship and foolishly thought it was the right thing to do for future generations? Is it that one?

Or perhaps you just want old people to get on with dying and stop talking about the boring old crap that made up their lives. We know the ageism on here is RIFE and wow doesn’t this thread just prove it.

My parents were born during the war and are furious. They used their fuel allowance to go out for a lunch at a Michelin-starred restaurant with their friends every year, thought it was hilarious. Much like the Child Benefit and free school lunches, the winter fuel allowance should definitely be means tested, but they've gone about it the wrong way.