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?

Blimey. The first winter fuel allowance in 1997 was only £20.

They could have put their intention in the manifesto. They could have warned people it was going to happen and introduced it next year. They could have taxed it or kept it for those with a disability. They could also have targeted the super rich first. It's a very politically inept decision.

I'm not sure i understand the connection between WW2 and the entitlement of people to winter fuel allowance anyway.

The country can't afford to keep giving handouts to rich people.

The ones I've seen moaning about it the most are the children of the war generation. They keep using photos of veterans on Facebook as evidence that old people need it - one of them is currently selling her half a million pound mortgage free house to downsize, which will put 200k in her pocket ... Yet she still feels entitled to WFA and uses pictures of very old soldiers to argue it. She's never been near a battlefield in her life.

I totally agree with you.

I have a real dislike of the endless obsession with ww2

I don't think the obsession has done anything for this country in recent years, just reinforced our ridiculous sense of superiority.

Absolutely agree
My parents born in the 50's losing their WFP actually had the cheek to say they'd have to book less cruises bevause they've got less money coming in. My dad has a final salary pension!!
Another couple I know massive public sector final salary pension, £30k caravan Sat on the drive and endless Facebook posts about the WFP.

Those who need it should get it those with other means shouldn't- Where's the bloody outrage about the millions of children living in poverty in this country? Where's the anger towards big energy companies and their endless profiteering?

Your whole message was divisive though. Read it back if you’re not sure.

I can remember that benefit being announced on television. It was a big deal I can assure you which is why the Tories didn’t want to cut it. They knew the backlash for cutting it would run deep.

Hooefully the winters will stay mild due to climate change and we don’t go back to pensioners dying in their homes again. Those were very sad reporting days each winter before that benefit came in.

Yes it is. The Conservatives started this before the Election. Pitting young against old is particularly disgusting.

I have older children, one going to uni next year which is going to leave her with debts of circa £60,000. One who can't afford to move out on his NMW job. For myself my mortgage had gone up by 50% because of Trussonomics. Don't even start me on what's happened to people on UC.

Pensioners benefited from Trussonomics because of the triple lock. I'm sorry, but we all have to share the pain of this and from my perspective pensioners have been fairly well cushioned so far compared to other demographics.

The message of division on this as opposed to a message of "we are all in this together" is really unhelpful.

The point is that while there are pensioners who you could describe as TECHNICALLY part of the wartime generation, in a political context the 'wartime generation' is used in a way to evoke a misty-eyed, sympathetic nostalgia for a generation who are - on average - the wealthiest cohort in our society.

There is no equivalent term that can be applied to other groups - e.g kids in care - that is so instantaneously emotive, even if that group is struggling from government cuts/policies.

It feels disingenuous because whether or not some pensioners belong to the 'wartime generation' is neither here nor there on the question on what benefits pensioners should receive and how much and why.

It’s the politics of resentment: divide and rule. We’re being played and most people don’t realise, and if they realise, they don’t care. Chiefly because a grievance is so energising.

There seems to be a lot of emotional attachment to a benefit that didn't exist until 1997.

Nick Robinson is a self confessed Tory supporter, he used to run the Young Conservatives & at Oxford Uni was chair of the Conservative Association.

Everything that comes out of his mouth needs to be considered in that light.

So of course he will portray cuts in WFA as damaging the "War Time Generation" because thats the Tory narrative they wish to give us all.

The difficulty of means testing for pensioners is that many will not claim it out of ability to navigate the system (especially if online), awareness or pride.

Cold kills. That's why the payment was created. Elderly people have low muscle mass and often restricted mobility. They have low resistance to feeling cold and are vulnerable to hypothermia. Their housing is less likely to be modern or updated to have optimal insulation or heating systems. Cold, damp houses exacerbate many health conditions such as respiritory problems or arthritis- that will increase the load on the NHS.

The barrier has been shifted too low and many people just eeking by will miss out and suffer for it. Older pensioners often retain the legacy of the "waste not want not" years of rationing in the war/ post-war era and it is common for them to skimp on their needs if they don't feel sufficiently protected by abundance.

Just being brought up by a war child in the 1980s, I have to resist the mentality that I was raised with by actively using things in the moment and not holding back for future circumstances. There was a massive generational trauma experienced by those who were young in the 1930s- early 1950s who lived through the war and its aftermath.

He's an idiot.

Can't stand the man.

It is the boomers but he won't have wanted to say that because of the negative "boomer" implications!

OP YANBU and imo shows a bit of bias in reporting

Not in mumsnet! Money breeds money and we know there’s an awful lot of wealth on here.

I agree. My Dad was born in 1946. He is a baby boomer not wartime.

Yo really are hauntingly ignorant. Men doing their compulsory national service fought and died in all the shitty little wars that Britain fought to try and shore up its collapsing empire in the 50s (eg Kenya, Aden, Malaya), and some bigger ones like Korea.

Eh? My dad was born in the 30s - so lived through the war and is still alive and well, as is his sister, my MIL and quite a few neighbours.

I agree that the. WFA should be means tested but think the cut off is too low. It should be set at around £18k pa.

I like the idea of using council tax bandings for WFA along with pension credits.

The equivalent of child benefit ( which most pensioners would also have got ) is the state pension. Not the WFA. Means testing of child benefit was implemented years ago. Pensioners have largely been protected over the last 30 years by successive governments while child benefit and many other services have been cut with hardly a peep.

The wording is deliberate to make you think that these were people who fought in the wars for us and so the government are being especially cruel. The reality is there will be very few of that age and those that are still here will either be able to claim or in care.

There are a lot more pensioners who aren’t millionaires