To resent the U-turn on winter fuel allowance?

The country is skint and that's the reason they cancelled WFA. Suddenly we can afford it as well as cancelling the 2 child benefit cap. Where is the money coming from - it's madness.

How blind to society are you that you think most pensioners are wealthy. So incredibly naive.

I don't necessarily disagree that it is ridiculous to give the WFA on a blanket basis. There are plenty of OAPs that don't need it. We need to stop this ridiculous argument that 'means testing is too difficult/expensive' and find a way to give more to those that need it and less to those that don't.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/pensioners-incomes-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2024/pensioners-incomes-financial-years-ending-1995-to-2024#overall-income-trends

here you go. Ok it only surveys 17000 pensioners but average income is between 20 and 24k so not a lot actually in the scheme of things. Ok they may not have mortgages, although quite a number do still, but for a lot just over the cut off it was felt

Not sure how they could do it but yes means test it, but it’s not something I begrudge any pensioner to be honest

Agreed.

the issue is that no party wants to tell the truth about how dire public finances are. Every party thinks that if they can just lie to the public, pretending their promises are affordable until it is proven they aren’t and they get kicked out then all is good.

I want to live in a well run, prosperous country with good public services. I and every other UK citizen needs to pay an awful lot more tax to pay for this. Let’s do it.

..........this is such an outrageous and excessively ridiculous suggestion I know, but.......if the cost of gas and electricity wasn't so extortionately high, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't need a WFA. Just a thought.........💁🏻‍♀️

Some people seem to live in a bubble … of totally not understanding how there is NO WAY these luxuries will be affordable by the state when the current person in their 30s or 40s get to pension age. No way. The population crisis will see to that. We will only be able to keep one of the below:

free social care
The NHS
State pensions
Public sector pensions funded at the current rate

The current well-off pensioners are disgustingly tone deaf. Which would you choose to keep? I think the NHS will be kept and the rest binned.

I totally agree. 1 in 4 pensioners are millionaires. They don’t need the bloody allowance

I'm from a deprived, low income area and all the pensioners I know don't need it but some still cry poverty.
I think it's just a mindset a lot of older people have.
For example my aunty has hardly ever worked, happily lived off benefits her whole life. She's just inherited a house and about 140k and refused to put her heating on in the winter, kept saying she couldn't afford it!
Both sets of parents have always been low earners but now they have their pensions and no housing costs they feel a lot more comfortable, taking multiple holidays a year, buying loads of stuff out of catalogues, off QVC etc but were fuming the payments we're taken off them...Still planning 6 weeks in Australia next year though..
From what I know it doesn't need to be given to a lot of people.

I see no reason for well off pensioners to receive this benefit, especially when small businesses are laying off staff because they can't afford the employers' NI rise. They're simply bowing to pressure. What else will they bow to?

There was a very interesting - and alarming - piece in yesterday's Times by Matthew Syed, about the utter foolishness and immorality of constantly kicking the can down the road, and saddling ourselves and our children with such crippling debt. We have the highest taxation for decades, yet less and less money to spend. This is because of debt interest.

We used it to pay fuel bills, so for what it was intended. We don’t need it now because we have moved to a smaller house, with fewer outgoings.

The thing is, it’s not about whether they can afford it. We know the older generation tend to be more frugal and when they see their heating costing a bomb it’s scary so they turn it off… then get sick and cost the government far more with a hospital stay. It’s a bigger picture thing and, working in a hospital, the removal of the winter fuel allowance worried me. It’s saving money in one area only to end up spending more in another.

@BlueEyedStarling nothing has been confirmed yet

Shouldn't you wait until there is actually something to be annoyed about? (in your view)

Younger generations won't get it and the state pension age will keep moving out. In that context it isn't fair but what can you do.

My DM is one of the not so well off but not quite poor enough to claim pensions credit, so it really did really hit her.

But I’m still in agreement, it should have always had the capacity to opt out, and yet it didn’t so we saw millions go to pensioners living in hot country’s, pensioners who can easily afford fuel etc. maybe they should give it based on taxable income? Or some other way of means testing that means it’s fairly distributed.

But give people an opt out!

It’s madness. It’s totally disproportionate to the need. There are some interesting statistics about the norms for different age groups, and that is T the group most likely to need help paying fuel bills.

So many people seem to live in a bubble of knowing only wealthy pensioners. I guess it's because they're the only ones that are mentioned and more visible.. I can assure you there are probably more living day to day than all these apparent moaning millionaires.

This includes dh and I and pretty much all of the ones I come across at work. (NHS)

I wish people would stop this bloody generalising.
No-one likes it when young people are told they should 'stop buying coffees and avacadoes' and they'd be ok, so why is the assumption that we're all loaded acceptable?

We are not, either, all wholly responsible for the state of the economy today and smug about about our pensions and houses. It grates, it really does

I had one elderly man last winter , I would say he was the only one I saw all winter who was sitting in a cold house with no central heating. Offered to do a benefit check for him to see if I could get him some Pension credit and therefore his wfp back and turned out he had £180k in the bank ! I find it baffling.

It should be means tested. My mother didn't need it but received it anyway.

When she died in October a couple of years ago, as her executor I informed the DWP of her death. I received a lovely letter in sympathy and advising me that her winter fuel payment would be paid as usual in December and if she hadn't received it I should get in contact. On receipt of the letter, I phoned DWP and explained that my mother was dead and she didn't need a winter fuel payment. DWP informed me that they knew she was dead but because she was alive in the August she had to receive it even if the payment was credited it to her estate. Madness.

There are often posts on here from posters who are totally exasperated with their elderly parents pleading poverty and refusing to pay for carers, cleaners or other help that would make their lives easier....often they have thousands and thousands in the bank and a large property they own outright.

Whilst agreeing that there are pensioners who live comfortably and have a good income, I think some partial U turn would be reasonable. I also think that the energy companies should be charging less for everyone.

I do benefit checks for pensioners and regularly have people ringing up pleading poverty. When I look at what they have coming in they often have £600+ a week coming in for a couple with no housing costs. I do understand that they need the heating on more because they are generally home more and less mobile but it baffles me as to how people can;t manage on that ( usually 2 x state pensions and often small private pensions). I think they just expect to still be running a massive car well into their eighties too. I appreciate it's harder for single pensioners and do think most should get the wfp.

I think the problem is that it would cost too much to means test it so it was easier to just give it to everyone or no-one.
Yes they had the pension credit to judge it by but there where still a lot of people who just missed out on pension credit but were still struggling financially!

And yet we can fund £16 billion on nuclear weapons that we could never dare to use....There are an awful lot of posters who seem to think funding life and not death is unreasonable.

I do not know any pensioners who are financially struggling at all...yet they all complained bitterly about losing the winter fuel payment.
When I pointed out that it was still paid to those that need it , and wasn't that money put to better use maybe giving it to any age groups who cannot afford fuel...like families with children? They all said " but I paid my taxes, entitled to it ".
It was seen as a perk not a benefit.
A benefit should be something given to those that need it...

All the pensioners I know including family and wider family are wealthier that we are working full time. In-laws sat in front of the screen moaning about wfa being ditched and they have thousands in the bank and live in a 4 bed bungalow with double garage. Appreciate NAPALT