Winter fuel payments

My mum has million in the bank. How on earth does she need this?

They must be very old to get all this and I did think it was per household, never mind you will soon inherit it all and be able to pay lots of inheritance tax.

What I don’t understand is the government’s argument that it’s too expensive to means test. Maybe I’m missing something but either your income is solely benefits, in which case they should know your income because they’re paying it, or you’re paid through payroll in which case they’ve got your P60 amount. Anything other/additional income would be declared on a tax return? Surely that’s a two minute job checking HMRC?

That’s got to be more cost effective than giving it to everyone across the board?

Totally agree

My drive to work is 25 mins - and costs say £5?
to get public transport... 3.5 hours by train (5 changes) and would cost £78

I couldnt even get the bus time table, as but i found a place to give a quote and it was £15 and 1 hour 25

Of course need to add the time to get to the bus stop, or train station

Agree with this. There are some real anomalies where someone on Pension Credit could now be better off than someone who (just) doesn’t qualify - that doesn’t seem fair.

Means tested defo, honestly some of the pensioners around by where I live drive brand new cars and are always away on holiday. I can't afford that. I say this is what they should be doing but they clearly don't need a top up for fuel whereas plenty of people working age would benefit instead

I thought it was £300 per household over 80 and £200 per household under 80

They were getting £600 odd. That's enough for 2 retirees to go away! They would be able to have term time holidays, able to leave whenever. They've had some bargains, including cruises etc

They were getting £600 odd. That's enough for 2 retirees to go away! They would be able to have term time holidays, able to leave whenever. They've had some bargains, including cruises etc

They made the right decision. They need to stick with it

It's ok,they go to their 3rd property in Spain and use the money to pay for the flights, car hire etc.
They have a 4 bed house now worth £950k in UK, 3 bed house rental income bringing in c. £1600, and their holiday villa in Spain, a 4 bed with a pool. ETA. Which they regularly rent out to their friends and get a nice other income.

Poor mites, they needed that winter fuel allowance...

Holiday, can't be much of a holiday then.

Yupp. My in laws use it for a holiday away!

If it were cheaper and more reliable then more folk would. Lots of folk can't afford cars either.

Would people use it though? Realistically how many people would use public transport for work rather than driving or take the kids in to town on the bus. People prefer to be in their own cars.

It's the proposed pip cuts they need to reverse or least scale back. Going ahead will be catastrophic for many people and families. I feel sick that they are doing this. Elderly people get a lot of consideration overall. Even the bedroom tax rules don't affect them. How about sick and disabled people who didn't chose this kind of life?

Better public transport for all (cheaper and higher quality) is a massive driver for economic growth. Birmingham could see a huge increase in productivity once it has a decent public transport system, for example.

A subsidised bus fair for all users would be fairer and encourage uptake/lifetime habits.

This Labour Government are weak and desperate.

I absolutely agree it should be means tested. My partners parents are sitting on a goldmine of assets, pensions, investments etc. They don’t struggle in any way, but dear god we never heard the end of ‘that Starmer taking away our winter fuel allowance’. They don’t need it, but they don’t want the ‘boat people’ to have it (they listen to Farage way too much) 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don't agree on removing free bus passes though, I think that should be encouraged for uptake - my 89 yr old grandmother can’t drive any longer, but using the bus has been able to keep her independence when she was so upset having to give up the car for medical reasons.

It definitely needs to be means tested. My elderly family member still claimed it even though they are wealthy and didn’t need it. And I agree that if they are entitled to it then yes they should claim it, but they don’t bloody well need it at all

yabnbu

It would have been really easy to stop this for higher rate tax paying pensioners in the first instance and there will be quite a few of them given final salary pensions, plus state pension, plus investments etc. It would have been a step in the right direction and easy to administrate. Capping it at pension credit was a lazy, stupid thing to do, has pissed so many people off and achieved nothing other than a lot more votes for Farage.

We should be means testing much more. The welfare state is supposed to a safety net, not an entitlement because X,Y,Z.

Means testing costs more money, which is why I assume that they chose to use the receipt of pension credit as the qualifier for receiving the WFA.

Apparently, the removal of the WFA was the grievance that was raised the most during the campaigning for the recent local elections.

I think that the threashold was set too low, but there is certainly no way that pensioners in the higher tax bracket should ever have been receiving this benefit. However, many people seem to have more sympathy and concern for pensioners than they do for any other demographic, e.g. children living in poverty.

Energy could be vastly cheaper for everyone if we were able to ban profits on fossil fuels.

Why should taxpayers subsidise fossil fuel profits by paying unchecked handouts to the richest generation in history ?