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?

DH has received the winter fuel payment for several years. He's been donating it to the Salvation Army at Christmas. We don't need it, and I suspect that the majority of people in receipt of it don't need it either.

What needs to happen now is that support needs to be given to those who should be receiving age-related benefits but aren't claiming them yet. Then they won't miss out on the payment.

If you are in London, that is really great but if you are in the rural SW, there's barely any useful public transport anywhere, and definitiely not when you need it. Because it is far far too expensive to cover lightly used routes between small villages. By way of an example, my DS's first job was as breakfast chef in a very expensive 5 star hotel. It was 8 miles from our house but completely impossible to get between the two and arrive at 6:45am without a car.

And, if I might point out, London's population density makes it possible to deliver that level of service and still keep your council tax much, much lower than most of the rest of the country. Edited, to add 2nd paragraph.

It already is 🙄

It is. Hope that helps.

Not down to the same level though

It is. One of my children doesn’t get it because her income is too high (and she’s in agreement with that.)

Don’t they just

There are heartbreaking comments on Twitter from elderly people who won't be able to keep warm this winter

No it can’t. It’s not a means tested benefit, and pensioners can’t claim PIP anyway - you can’t make a new claim for PIP after age 66. AA and child DLA are the same - not means tested so don’t count.

If they are going to means test it, which wasn’t anywhere in their manifesto (unlike VAT on school fees) why not take it away at a level equivalent to the National Living Wage? After all, that’s the minimum you need to live on and, according to Labour, should be increased. But currently is equal to around £24k a year

This is just the start. They won’t want to announce all their plans in one go in order to stem the backlash. Watch this space, I guarantee there will be more announcements in the coming days and weeks ahead. They could have increased tax on the super rich but instead have gone for the pensioners again. Why?

Yes, that's the big problem with rural transport. I don't imagine it's all that safe to cycle on narrow country roads either.

My worry too; just had my brother call me, worried sick that he'll lose his disability benefits. He has Parkinsons and had to give up work because of his disability. I can all but hope he will be OK but disabled people shouldn't have to be stressed like this. For a start, its makes his condition much worse.

I think it’s an entirely sensible decision. Like many others are saying I know lots of OAPs that absolutely do not need the fuel allowance; my dad and his partner spend theirs on their booze aboard the multiple cruises they take each year.

Reeves has done exactly what other chancellors have done. At the very start of their government they are in the best place to claim that the outgoing government has left more of a mess than they thought, and then use it to divert funding to keep their manifesto promises.

Well it’s a good job you aren’t pm then.

I am 100% on board with this. If people don't need something, they shouldn't have it. It's about time winter fuel payments for pensioners was mean-tested. It's well overdue!

Agree; just said as much to my family.

I agree.

The state pension is now only about £3 pw more than pension credit, so someone who's worked and paid NI for most of their lives will end up worse off than someone who's never worked.

This exactly, those just over the threshold with be much poorer than those who do receive pension credit

So those who aren't wealthy = fall through the net can just suck it up, is that it? How does a 60+ year old get into employment.

Perhaps she’ll amend the level at which it’s withdrawn to align with the withdrawal of the winter heating allowance. That’s, what, £16k or so? Seems like a great plan ;)

It would be much fairer to make the whole benefits system contribution-based so that those who have never paid in, or paid much less than they take cannot claim or can only claim for a few years rather than taking from pensioners who have most likely paid lots of tax and NI over the years.

It would be political suicide for Labour to do anything like that. They picked up a lot of votes from people who didn't trust the Tories to maintain the NHS, schools and other public services, or to maintain benefits. Scrapping the winter fuel payment for pensioners not on benefits will have widespread public support, including from the majority of those who now won't get it. Scrapping disability payments absolutely wouldn't.