WINTER FUEL PAYMENT

Oh god, it is her again! She drove most of us mad CONSTANTLY repeating the same thing over and over again

I do wonder what size home you have OP.

I'm 67 and was due to get the WFA this year but got the same letter.

However DH & I are both retired so have heating on 7am - 11pm 7 days pw at most, but the most expensive it's been was £110 last February. (I submit meter readings online every month end and we pay by variable DD). Certainly affordable.

We have gas CH in a 2 bed Victorian terrace.

I wonder if RM give Gov a bulk discount!

I believe I read that 8million letters had been sent out so I imagine circa £8million taking in to account staff, materials and postage.

If you are just on the threshold of eligibility then some councils have stepped in to offer some money towards heating bills from their budget. Also, speak to your utility provider, some have initiatives in place to help people in this position too.

Also, identify some places in advance that can get you warm, a library perhaps or one of the warm hubs councils have in place.

I think turning off your central heating, rather than using less, is a bit extreme. Gas fires aren't as efficient as your heating system so you won't get the most heat for your pound.

My proposed method is to turn off the central heating and only use the gas fire in the living room for heating - I feel uncomfortable if a room is too warm and the gas fire chucks out lots of heat anyway.

Or just turn off all the radiators except in the room you want to heat, but that’s what’s sensible anyway.

I never have all the house heated if we’re not using the rooms, what would be the point, is that what you’d been doing before?

Well if you don't even need to claim your pension you've no need to be whinging about the winter fuel allowance.

i dont think he should
sorry, i should have been clearer.
he is complaining!
not me

It’s the psychology of having something taken away which rankles, I think, which I do understand.

He hasn't robbed you.

He's stopped giving £2-300 to households that don't need it

They won't do that because in most cases it will show that they can easily afford to heat their homes, along with other expenses to a fairly decent standard.

I know that single pensioners just above the limit might struggle, but many others really don't need an extra £2/300 per year. Plus there's a whole host of benefits available to pensioners on low incomes or with additional needs if they just applied.

There was a couple on BBC Moneybox last week talking about how hard done by they were but they had 2 x state pensions plus 'small employer's pensions' on top, so likely well over £2k pm coming in, with no housing costs. So enough for food, bills, and day to day leisure at least. The £4/5 a week they've lost is a tiny percentage of their income and their pension will go up by £9 a week each next April.

This sort of whining entitlement is all too common.

Why do you think he should get it then? Does he not get a pension?

sigh
dh had this
he wont get pension credit, guess what, because he is married to me! and i work

And the student and the person trying to buy a house will most likely be related to a 'boomer'. We don't all live in isolation and most of us help our families out..

Post a list of your income and outgoings. Maybe we can help you to work out where you can make changes and if you're entitled to any additional support.

I would have given the £300 to someone in need

why should the government give you money for you to donate to charity or a friend in need?
Give your own money

Are you not entitled to pension credit, OP?
How much will your pension increase this year? Can you use that to pay for your heating bills?

This, while a 35 year old head of department in my local school pays £1250 a month rent because he can’t afford to buy a house. House prices are about 7 times his salary.

For every boomer sat, mortgage free, in a house there’s a young person who has a student loan paying through the nose for rent.

We can all play to a trope.

Presumably they're required to notify everyone so I doubt they've much choice in the matter but, it might be fun to try and work it out.

There's about 7.8m people affected by the cut.

To send each a letter you'd need:

7.8m stamps (1st class at £1.35)
envelopes
7.8m envelopes (pack of 5000 for £125)
15,600 packs of 500 sheets of A4 paper (around £9 a pack on average)
3,200 ink cartridges (around £24 on average).

So, (7.8m x £1.35) + (1560 × £125) + (15,600 x £9) + (3,200 x £24) = £10,942,200 for materials.

Then you'd need to print and send them.

It takes about 0.05kWh to print an A4 letter so and average kWh costs 22.36p so:

7.8m × 0.05kWh = 390,000kWh x £0.2236 = £87,204 in electricity.

And let's say staff are paid on average £13 p/h and can process 30 letters and hour:

7.8m ÷ 30 = 260,000 hours x £13 p/h = £3,380,000 in staff costs.

That makes the total somewhere in the region of £14,409,404.

Now obviously that's based on an assumption that the government are pay average consumer prices for materials and electricity, which is unlikely, but then I've probably forgot to factor in some hidden costs so it should balance out.

So a one-off cost of £14.5m to carry out their responsibilities in terms of notifying people in order to save, according to the government anyway, £1.5bn.

Should also say maths is not my strong point so there's a good chance I've made a pig's ear of something in the above.

I got this today. Block and report as scam.

Your first point about the gas fire was correct in our experience. We moved into a house with only a gas fire and it cost as much to heat just the living room as it did to heat the whole house properly from the next winter onwards after we'd had GCH installed.

So a word of caution to the OP that this might not necessarily be money saving.

However, you should first check that you're getting all the benefits you're entitled to and also talk to your energy supplier if your budget looks tight with the loss of the winter fuel allowance.

I may sound unsympathetic, but I do begrudge pensioners whinging about losing £300, knowing they retired at 60 and will have had 7 years worth of pension more than I will ever get (£££) as I cant retire until I am 67

Oh, it’s you again. Weren’t you pulled up on your last thread on the same subject for having a posting history which didn’t quite add up to your story?

Ridiculous. You're criticising the government for not giving you something you (and the vast majority of people) don't need. Laughable.