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?

The state pension is only “low” because we pay so little in for it.
To get a bigger pension, you would need to pay more tax & NI.

yep

In the 1950s how did the baby boomers' parents keep them warm? Heated bedrooms? Liberty bodices?

Council tax bands will be next, big hikes to cover the fuck ups that the local councils have made. It will be relentless and everyone will be paying more.

"Built the country", oof my sides.

Anyone who's well into their 90a has my unending respect and gratitude for what they did, and what they suffered during wartime and shortly after.

Those of you younger than that haven't done anything except take what you were bequeathed and royally fuck it up for those who followed. (And paid significantly less to support the pensioners of the time than we're now paying to support you.)

I don't necessarily think you should have to pay more.

My point was that whatever proposals are made on tax there'll be squeals from the people who have to pay them.

Personally I'd like to see more hypothecated taxes - I get that politicians hate them but an extra 5% on inheritance tax ringfenced for social housing would be the kind of thing I'd like to see.

We need a big public campaign to make sure that those who don't claim Pensioners' Credit go for it & so get their winter fuel allowance.

So you think out of the princely combined sum of £350 a month, £150 on monthly mortgage payments isn’t proportionate to today ? Recent figures show that currently those under 30 spend around 30% of income on housing costs. How is that harder now than back then ?

How on earth can it be right that those who get by only on a State Pension (and there are so many!) lose their WFP while people on a virtually identical income with Pension Credit keep theirs?

While energy prices are so high this is a callous and ill thought-out policy. Very depressing to see that so many people think that most pensioners are stereotypes from a Saga holidays advert, clinking their glasses as they cruise into the sunset!

It’s not just been removed from comfortably off pensioners, it’s being removed from single pensioners who earn £218.15 per week only, literally people already on the poverty line

Well they won't be subsidising the younger generation. Pensioners aren't being asked to pay for the younger generation or at all.

I'm farly relaxed about paying what I owe in tax, and have been a net contributor for most of my earning years. I always have paid (no choice really) but now that I am living off the savings of 50 years of work, and watching any benefits being scraped away to the bone, on behalf of my DM 90, who really does need the extra, I am starting to feel quite ornery. DM worked as a MH carer until she was 78 years old. And still has to claim Pension Credit. Is that dignified? Or fair?

A gen X, I take it.

@Rosscameasdoody honestly this is boring. Statistically todays young people do have it harder re housing costs and wages. As I said that’s it, there is nothing more to add but you can carry on arguing with yourself if you want.

It's not just about the net saving, it's about targeted spending ie why do my lovely -and wealthy- parents need a Winter Fuel Payment (as a failed attempt at a bribe to vote Tory) when poorer, less informed and far more needy pensioners aren't claiming the money they are entitled to? Far better to target the limited resources of the state where it is actually needed.
Rachel Reeves comes across as a rigourous economist with a heart- a galaxy away from Liz Truss.

If that was for me @MeouwCat , no... I am 67.

Dignified no, fair, possibly.

5% mortgage rates nowadays are equivalent to around 15% then. Whichever way you slice it, housing is (comparatively) much more expensive than it used to be. Trying to find a way to deny this obvious fact just comes across as badly-informed whinging, I do often wonder if people realise how badly they come across when they attempt this.

How did we fuck it up exactly ? There are significant improvements in a lot of areas now that you wouldn’t be benefiting from unless ‘we’ had fought for them.

@Rosscameasdoody literally a quick google search would prove you wrong. Stop being so ridiculous.

Lets just hope its not a long ,hard cold winter this year.

Massive but true generalisation- your generation voted for Brexit.

If your parents go abroad for 3 months you clearly come from a privileged background. You have no idea how hard this will hit some pensioners who are not entitled to benefits but are pretty much on the breadline.

No, it’s not.

I haven't read the thread but DH and I certainly don't need free prescriptions. We may be over 60 but we are both still working.

I'd like to see the 16 hour cap re universal credit dealt with. Nobody should be allowed to refuse extra hours of work to keep their full benefit. It should be mandatory to accept extra hours and there should be a corresponding cut in universal credit received.

Not all of us. Certainly not myself or anyone I know, in fact.