Winter fuel payments for pensioners scrapped

[MidnightPatrol]

Unless they are in receipt of pension credit or other benefits.

I suspect this will be the first of many benefits which will be restricted as part of cost-cutting measures.

What else might we see / should we see?

And some, by the time I retire (at 67) I'll have made 51 years worth of NI conts.

Youth isn't a skill - and the ugly posts on here positively braying about this would do well to remember that

So Labour have started going after pensioners. Yes there are wealthy people in that age group, but I would guess there are more who have 'done the right thing' and saved money for their old age, so do not get pension credits. These are the ones who will lose out. Pity that the new chancellor is picking on easy targets rather than raising/saving money by taxing the huge tax avoiding companies, or reducing illegal immigration and its massive associated costs which offer no benefit to the taxpayer. I suspect many of the squeezed pensioners would rather like to spend the winter in a nice warm hotel, with 3 meals a day and everything paid for.

If they were on a cruise they’d probably paid a heck of a lot more VAT than £200…they’d just be getting a little bit of a rebate!

She really doesn't need a rebate.

Nowhere have I said that the present system is right. But I'm sick of reading posts from people who are getting off on this to a sickening degree. And because they know some well off and unpleasant pensioners, apparently we're all like that.

I'm just disgusted by this. Surely there were other ways to save money

There's a myth that pensioners are either getting pension credit or fabulously wealthy spending it in the garden centre. There are plenty in the middle. And a frail 89 year old feels the cold more than a 49 year old. Plus many have old inefficient heating systems

You'll be flamed on here , but I can imagine a lot of people will feel and say the same.

I'd dearly live to go on holiday, even for just a week, let alone three!

Yes. You too could get £221.20 a week to hand over to council tax, Shell and Mr Tesco after 35 years if you play your cards right.

Or, you could sit on your hoop, or do cash in hand, for 35 years and get the same, plus a few nice extras as well.

Disgraceful to target pensioners.There will be uproar about this and rightly so.

Irony’s not your thing then.

And a hatred of the old might not be your best choice since your old age is inevitable.

The difference is the cut off for child benefit is £50000, pension credit cut off is about £11500 per year. There’s single pensioners who only have around £12000 per year to live on who the extra £200 winter fuel payment makes a big difference to

What do you think the solution is, out of interest?

Haven’t they also announced the state pension is to be means tested? Seems they don’t care much about the pensioners. It seems that only the very rich or those on benefits will be able to afford to be pensioners 🙄

Exactly this.
Well, if they get away with this, who knows who they will come after...
I'm disgusted - and I've voted Labour for over 40 years.
Utterly disgusted.

There won't. You can tell by the posts on this thread, that there's no sympathy for pensioners. And those pensioners hit by this don't really have a voice.

Didn’t Jeremy Hunt put it up to about £80,000 in his last attempt to buy votes Budget?

As you say, pensioners are easy pickings. Most of us barely get by. Shame on the Labour Party but I'm not surprised.

And again….

So is the younger of the couple not working then if you are surviving just on state pension?

Doubt it, although I'm sure that there are some on here who would be pissing their knickers if that were the case.

I think the reason it was given to all was because it would cost more to means test it at the time.

I'm not sure I follow your argument.

Are you assuming I believe people should have as many children as they want regardless of whether they can afford them?

I personally don't care how people afford their DC, whether it's a career, a rich DH or benefits (so long as they're legally claimed and no shenanigans going on), so long as they do afford them and care for them adequately. I don't condone child neglect and if someone wants another but knows they can't afford it and has to hold back, so be it. Lots of people can't have things they want in life. Life isn't fair. Wealth isn't equal.

I'm not massively into politics so perhaps I've got this wrong but isn't equality of wealth across all citizens one of the the basics of communism? I'm not aware of anyone holding any communist country up to be the pinnacle of perfection. So something a bit less equal is always going to be how it is then.

This yet another flip flop from Starmer. Before Labour were voted in, he promised to have the protections on his pension removed. Oh what a surprise when now it's not. Just in time for him to retire on when Labour lose the next general election. He's as slippery as a wet bar of soap

SOME pensioners are wealthy. Many are in very modest incomes, just managing

I think this is a good decision. It should always have been means tested if it existed at all.