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?

Eh? How can you live through something that happened 10 years before you were born?

My Mum was born in 1936, she very much remembers the war, and will just miss out on her WFA. I can’t believe the Labour Party chose to pick on this most vulnerable group of people.

Younger people can take on more employment, work extra hours. Younger people are generally more physically fit.When a skint 20yo student, I worked in a pub in the evenings which kept me warm and gave me a cash boost.

Many old people are frail, need more warmth to survive, cannot work.

Only by those stupid enough to be determined to categorise ( in order to bash) people by age.
There are well off and very poor people in every age band. But I am utterly sick of " my inlaws have money therefore all older people do". NOT TRUE

This is genuinely one of the most embarrassing threads I’ve ever seen on mumsnet, I can’t decided whether I think this is a joke! Around 50,000 people died in around a year during the Blitz in the UK. Some of my family members were killed during it. Two million homes were bombed being damaged or destroyed. You desperately need a history lesson, this is primary school level stuff…

Yet again I am horrified by this the sweeping assumptions about baby boomers. There not an homogeneous group. For every boomer that grew up in the land of milk of honey there are plenty others that have lived in poverty all their lives

I don’t think people think this, obviously if you are discussing statistics there will always be outliers but I’m not sure what else we can use apart from statistics?

Born 1955. Don't consider myself to be the wartime generation. That was my parents born 1917 and 1820, married 1940.

Why don’t younger people in poverty get WFP?

In the 1950's, British soldiers were involved in the Korean War, Mau Mau uprising in Kenya, Anglo Egyptian war, Cyprus emergency among others.
As an aside, I be only found out recently that Harold Wilson repeatedly refused to send British soldiers to Vietnam in the 70's.

I suggest you educate yourself.

www.nam.ac.uk/explore/what-was-national-service

This, with bells on.

OP, your parents may clear £7k a month but most 'boomers' do not. Employer pensions only became compulsory in 2018. For every wealthy boomer, there are several who have nothing but the state pension of £220 a week. And no they can't claim pension credit, and yea, they may well freeze this winter. Let's pray the weather is kind to them because they certainly can't look to this dreadful govt for support.

So? Your example proves precisely nothing about any generation. It's one person.

Both my parents were children in the war, evacuated. Both have lots of tales to tell of what it was like. Both still living in their own home.

👏 👏 👏 Totally agree OP!

Gosh, how ridiculous. Being old enough to vaguely remember a war that you didn’t fight in is meaningless. I remember a number of wars that I didn’t fight in. What does that mean for me? What do I get?

My gran was 10 the day the 2nd WW ended she lost all her brothers. She was evacuated twice and remembers bombers flying overhead to bomb the Clyde. Her sister was in the women’s brigade who worked in the farms. No they are absolutely not all dead! In their 80s and 90s and sitting in cold houses warming 1 room and eating ready meals and toast as they can’t get out to shops and practically no care apart from family popping in. What a silly comment. In another 10/15 years they might be but then who knows we might all be!
and yes it was a silly thing to say though I never heard him but I can vouch for many pensioners I look after in 70s and 80s unable to heat more than 1 room and living on meagre meals. Perhaps it should be means tested or something.

My mum was born in 1938, she brings in £600 a week in pensions alone, not counting her stocks and shares, her savings and her premium bond winnings ( at least £100 a month there ) . Shes been donating her WFA to the RNLI ever since she received it

Im sorry to hear that @XDownwiththissortofthingX There was a programme on Channel 5 recently Britains Atomic Bomb Scandal

My gran was wartime, she remembers having to go into the air raid shelters and is now paying all her own bills/ lives at home still.

Also my mum, born just a few years after the war.

So yes, definitely wartime generation.

Yet again I am horrified by this the sweeping assumptions about baby boomers. There not an homogeneous group. For every boomer that grew up in the land of milk of honey there are plenty others that have lived in poverty all their lives. There are plenty others whose entire heritage, living and community was swept away in the Thatcher years. You parents and their circle do not represent all boomers, just a few lucky ones.

As we're on R4 with one, they were also reporting that there Millennials are the generation that will benefit from the biggest transfer of generational wealth in history. Does that mean all Millennials. No, and it just as stupid to generalise with boomers.

The way world's going, we may have another wartime generation. Let's see how dismissive we are then.

Yes. I had a Great Uncle who was present for the CI tests during his NS. He died in the 70's due to multiple cancers, no doubt due to his NS "jolly".

Huh? It's just used as a description of a group of people, like saying 'Gen Z' or whatever. The wartime generation id take to mean as born during the war rather than having fought in the war.

I think over 70s or over 75s should get it by the way. I'm a labour voter but of all the things to tackle first, taking money from pensioners shouldn't have been the priority.

@HauntedBungalow all men had to do their national service, the majority in the armed forces.

There was Korea, Cyprus, Malaya and Kenya amongst others. Why do you think men doing their National Service weren’t fighting in Korea ?

Some of the servicemen on Christmas Island when the atomic bomb was being tested were on National Service. Are you one of those MNers who had a uni education. Wasted if you did.