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?

My own feeling is that they will look at reigning in disability benefits by tightening elgibility (yet again) and scrapping the lower levels of payment, so that only the most disabled will qualify. It’s a universal benefit intended to mitigate the costs of living with a disability, so I really don’t see how they can means test it according to income without a massive backlash. If they did means test, the income level would have to be somewhere in line with that of child benefit to be perceived as fair.

Surely this hasn't come as a surprise.

It's pretty obvious it was going to be working/retired pensioners taking a hit.

Then it will be those that have saved for a rainy day.
Specific amount yet to be decided.

I've only taken 4 years out from my working life paying tax, no benefits claimed, to spend with my DC during their early years before returning to FT work again yet I remember well a letter I received informing me if I wanted a full state pension I could pay a lump sum to catch up and receive the full amount which at the time would have been at 60.

Looking back fortunately I didn't have the money to do so as if I had of done I'd have felt really cheated now, should have stayed non working I could claim pension credits.

I've now paid in for 40 years, so fulfilled the correct amount of years, the goal post for claiming my pension at 60 have already been moved, wonder how far they will be moved in future.

I think the £10 Christmas bonus could go as well, goodness knows when that was fixed

It was first given in 1972, when the state pension was £6.75 pw for a single person and £10.90 for a married couple. So basically it was double time. Now it's almost an insult.

Re the bus pass, they can certainly get rid of it for 60-up-to-pension-age people in London. I know someone aged 61 who is working in Zone 1 with flexible hours, and he is delighted to have saved the entire cost of his season ticket by moving his start to 10am.

So Prawncow. We can all sell our big old falling to pieces houses for a pittance so that we can live in a rabbit hutch in the town?
All we're asking for is a meagre couple of hundred quid to help pay for the heating that old bones need.
I live in a modest sized house, current selling price around £250,000. Local retired person residences are around £200,000 plus all the extra charges for Grounds maintenance, water rates, council tax etc. And no, I don't really want to sell it. We've lived here for 40 years, raised our children and made happy memories and many friends here.
Anyway, how does that help me lead a better life that I've worked hard for, for over 50 years?
We haven't spent our lives doing nothing you know.

I've read two sad stories of pensioners £2 a week over the pension benefit £104 a year who will both lose the £200.

Another story an elderly lady who's daughter gets a carers allowance, they're not eligible either.

It's calculated that 800,000 individuals who are eligible aren't claiming pension credit so they'll be losing it too.

It’s just easy pickings isn’t it? I must admit I am surprised though because a large proportion of the pensioners who will be most affected by this probably will be labour voters. Those wealthy pensioners would not have voted labour anyway.

Get a few cold winters and fuel prices rising again and Reeves is going to look like Ebeneezer Scrooge decreasing the surplus population.

Why is no-one talking about the care cap?

And those on pension credit will still get the payment.

Baby boomers own more than three quarters (78%) of the property wealth in this country. It's a generalisation for a reason.

That’s the problem with means testing. The thresholds are invariably set low. That’s why it’s a race to the bottom.

Responding to my own post … the 3 couples I refer to all have full public sector pensions, too , as well as SP .

The pain will have to be shared equally @pam290358.

However, I think there needs to be a general, and intergenerational agreement that if it costs £xxk to live a safe life, then the tax threshold should be set to bite after that.

Labour's Austerity has started.... keeping the most vulnerable in winter cold.

Rishi Sunak said a Labour government would mean a £2,000 tax increase for every working family. Labour denied this. How were they able to deny this if they didn’t already know the state of the country’s finances? They were the main opposition. Of course they knew. And now they are having to make cuts so that they can still afford their manifesto promises, and they can say it’s all the Tories fault. They shouldn’t have made manifesto promises they couldn’t afford to keep.

But they won’t, because the poorest pensioners are often those who just miss out on getting pension credits and all the benefits they bring!

Well, where did you expect the big spondulicks to spout from?

Some of us do vote Tory, quite a lot of us probably. Most people I know anyway.
The new State Pension might sound OK but many do not get the headline amount so often quoted. Also most are on the old pension which falls behind more each year as increases are % based. Depending on how long I live, mine will be worth a fraction of the new one.

50 year olds aren't baby boomers - most are still in work and not claiming their state pension...

The Tories said exactly the same about Labour when they came into power though didn’t they Otter? Remember the note that Liam Byrne (Chief Secretary to the treasury under Gordon Brown) left that said ‘I’m afraid there is no money.’

I don’t know if you’ve read but this country is absolutely skint. Where do you think the money for this is to come from? Everyone is going to go through the wringer if they haven’t already. This is what 14 years of a Tory government gets you.

Hasn't she already pointed her laser guidance at private pension schemes suggesting the £800m safely and sensibly invested to provide an income to pensioners be utilised to 'kickstart' growth by investing in the many dodgy building projects the govt want to get going? So wouldn't you believe t? another raid on pensioners incomes coz I can't see the govt guaranteeing the investment.

Tou can't know many OAPs then!!

Not even close. If they’ll take WFP from pensioners there’s no limit to what they’ll do. Think child benefit, disability benefits, forcing sick people to work. No better than the Tories really - just a different version.

So if you have worked, been responsible, not claimed benefits and built up a pension you are punished but if you've never worked you get lots of money thrown at you. No wonder productivity is so low and so many people are not working, why bother?