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?

Sorry, must be wrong. Apologies. It must be your generation that did it. That and the new arrivals that is.

But this cut off is £218.15 per week, that’s no where near wealthy

Wonder what the response on here will be when Inheritance Tax gets changed

CGT certainly needs to be more in line with income taxes. I think the maximum of 1m IHT threshold is pretty generous.

So much of our economic woes is because of the distorted housing market which has lead to huge inter generational inequality.

Bit of a difference between an earnings threshold for child benefit of £60,000 to £80,000 and just under £11,500 for pension credit though wouldn’t you say ?

Slippery slope. What next Bus pass? Scotland, Wales and London, free bus travel from 60. England, you have to wait untill 66. Deeply unfair,

I know that pensioners pay tax, but the fact is that they claim more in benefits and services than they pay in tax. They want higher pensions, better health and social care, winter fuel payments etc etc etc but they haven't paid for that. When they were young they benefitted from affordable housing and low taxation and they now own 78% of the UK's property wealth.

Younger generations are saddled with high taxes, poor services, and high house prices because they are paying the baby boomers debt. Research shows that todays workers will be net contributors to the welfare state, while baby boomers are the net beneficiaries. There is huge intergenerational inequality because baby boomers have been undertaxed, and it comes at the expense of younger generations. So no, I'm sorry, I don't think that they should have an automatic right to winter fuel payments.

Of course there will always be exceptions and people who are not well off, but there are hard up people in every generation who don't get winter fuel payments.

And don't start about mortgage rates in the 70s. The income to house price ratio has more than doubled since the 70s. Houses are now 65 times more expensive. I don't think that I'm the ignorant one here.

I've always thought it was a bit crazy giving people over 60 free prescriptions when most work until 67 anyway and those that don't tend to be on UC and get them free anyway.

I think it's a good idea. The thought my dad receiving this is quite frankly ridiculous. A fact he has always agreed with and he always gives his to the Salvation Army.

Given that absolutely every benefit for younger/working age people is means tested it only seems fair surely.

Excuse me, but is there a mix up between Child Benefit, and benefit paid for children within the calculation for another benefit? I think I had a conversation with a friend about this and we were talking at cross purposes.

Agreed. Not everyone is a mumsnet pensioner with loads in the bank who jets off to Spain every winter. There are a lot of pensioners in the uk who aren’t entitled to pension credit etc but are still on the bones of their arse. This is a shit decision that needs to be thought through better.

Missing the point. If your income is even pence over £220.70 a week you don’t get pension credit, so you don’t qualify for the winter fuel allowance. How many pensioners have more than the state pension is irrelevant while this situation prevails. These are people who are already scared to turn their heating on so are going to freeze in winter.

We paid in with our time and our labour.

And if you think mortgage rates are high trying paying the rates we paid in the seventies and beyond, when switching and re mortgaging was really hard to do…….

17% of a low amount is not too different from 5% of a high amount. And of course no MIRAS anymore.

I'm in Scotland and hope they sitxh the free prescriptions, bus passes and baby boxes too, for all but those in genuine need, which is where it should be focused.

Oh here comes the racism and immigrant blaming I’m surprised it took so long.

A lot of posters on Mumsnet are middle to upper class which is probably why they are more likely to vote for Labour (they can afford to).

Well the Salvation Army won't benefit this year will they?

Given that absolutely every benefit for younger/working age people is means tested it only seems fair surely.

Quite and the fact state pension age is moving out despite no increase in healthy life expectancy and tbh I think it will be means tested at some point. The NHS will change too.

Before you came the Silent Generation and the Greatest Generation. They created the NHS, they gave you grants to go to University, they gave you peace in Europe and the EU, they tried to make sure you had everything they had lost out on. You voted out of the EU even when the young people were begging you not to. They built council houses and you bought them up and sold them for 10x the cost. You voted for 14 years of bitter austerity and watched children going hungry and public services decimated. You pulled up the drawbridge behind you and made sure the next generation had nothing you benefitted from, all whilst saying they were entitled snowflakes.

Thanks for the sexual revolution (which you retroactively put limitations on) but apart from that, if you're not getting much sympathy from the younger generations, you are reaping what you sowed.

I tell you what? I'll trade the heating allowance in for the new old age pension that younger pensioners get. Then I'll be more than a little bit over the limit.

I hope all these people who are saying is fair and every pensioner they know is well off will feel the same when they get to their pensionable age. Presumably they all have amazing private pensions and can go on cruises during the winter?

£300 can make a big difference to elderly retired people who spend a lot of time in their homes and would like to stay warm in the winter.

A lot of posters on Mumsnet are middle to upper class which is probably why they are more likely to vote for Labour (they can afford to).

Did the poor get richer under the Tories?

Many low income pensioners do not claim the Pension Credit to which they are entitled.

They will be really hurt by this. I hope the withdrawal is accompanied by an awareness campaign to ensure that all who are entitled to claim are able to do so.

Somehow I doubt it.

So unless you are on benefits you won’t get it? Another example of sit on your arse and do nothing and get everything. There are many pensioners barely scraping by on their pensions who will really miss it. Next will be free school meals for kids. There is already talk of them scrapping the proposals for new hospitals. The hundreds of doctors promised will be the next to not materialise. Make the most of it labour. Next election will be reform in power.