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?

@Putting I just don’t understand the relevance of equating the two particularly as older people will have the same benefit universally. People on high incomes can get attendance allowance or DLA, presumably you have an issue with that too?

And those with properties not worth a fortune - what do they do? Seen the prices of one or two bed properties? Those properties would ideally be for first time buyers who couldn't afford the bigger properties the pensioners move from.... The circle isn't squaring here. Or do you suggest they move many miles away from their help network. Please don't get old.

If pensioners haven't saved for their retirement then they need to budget

- to whoever said this does that mean you saved to have your children? I paid into my private pension and state pension for 50 years !

I don’t have an issue with people on high incomes getting child benefit.

I think it’s wrong that they are taking a small benefit away from someone on £11,000 a year while allowing a larger benefit to be paid to people on £60,000 a year.

I have also said I’m not against means testing the winter fuel payment. But setting it as low as they have is wrong.

Family allowance as it was called is now £2184 per annum for two children. Used to take me ten weeks to save up for Clarks shoes for my children.

Oh please everyone knows housing costs have never been so out of reach

Higher education has never costs students or parents so.much

The current pension generation had a very decent standard of living as a generation. NHS, EU membership, a relatively peaceful world, climate stability. If they saved nothing that is not for the working population to put right.

No future generation will have this. As a generation, you can't talk politics as individuals. It's going to get worse and worse.

Everyone is going to take a hit.
Including pensioners this time because there's nothing else left.

The average pension couple are taking income of £30000, so £75 a week would be small in comparison

There are pensioners on housing benefit, you might get housing benefit but not pension credit, that travel overseas for more than 3 weeks. It’s not uncommon, sometimes they save their airfare and other times relatives pay for their ticket

Company pensions were not available to all but there was nothing to stop somebody paying into a private pension scheme and many did that.

The winter fuel allowance is £300 per person. To say it is being taken away is misleading, it is not being given to all any more. I doubt very much it will be missed by most pensioners. I speak as a pensioner and not a 'rich' one, but comfortable.

Some of today's pensioners worked 50 years with low pay - now find themselves through no fault of their own in a sticky wicket.

This is true of todays workers too, particularly as wage growth was much stronger pre financial crash. And a lot of company pension schemes today are pretty poor. However for younger people who are struggling the narrative is often that it’s their own fault.

This thread is Labour comedy gold. But there’re only about 80 posts to go before it’s full up.

Come on Labour cheerleaders, surely you can start another one devoted to how pensioners deserve a good kicking, those greedy old bastards. After all, there have been multiple Starmer love-in threads.

Universal benefits are one of those all or nothing things. At some stage it became okay to decide who was deserving of them because of income and when it was about children it was okay. But for reasons unclear this should not apply to pensioners. The

FWIW, I assume my state pension will be partly means tested by the time I qualify.

Labour are proving already to be worse than that shitshow we had for 14 years. And it's barely been a month.

I know
quite how I’m going to manage when they take my HGV license away from me and I still won’t get a decent pension 🤷🏻
at least I’ll be able to move into one of the smart new social housing homes that will be built 😂😂😂

Many here are saying pensioners who have income over the pension credit threshold should have saved harder and managed their money better so being old and poor is their own fault.

By that reasoning you and many other parents should have budgeted better in order to afford the nursery fees. Being squeezed for or unable to afford childcare is your own fault.

Fair’s fair, right?

That's true - it is VERY VERY tough on youngsters today. I couldn't agree more - but society shouldn't be arguing as to who is the poorer. Should be attacking government for going after the wrong target - the fuel companies and companies who don't pay tax

@UndergroundSquirrel - that is what gets said! And it is what people have to do. Didn’t you know?

@putting so you do have an issue then? And should someone earning 60k get DLA or AA or is it just child benefit that you’re disagree with?

Next it will be those lazy disabled bastards on benefits, what are they doing in a wheelchair? Should have saved for that day when they became to infirm, oh but I forgot they were probably on 5 star cruises get their arses wiped by their very own personal carers.

Family allowance as it was called is now £2184 per annum for two children. Used to take me ten weeks to save up for Clarks shoes for my children.

That would be something called inflation & also globalisation.

True but if it’s ok to penalise pensioners on an income of £11000 approx without receiving additional help, why should those on child benefit? I have paid into my state pension for 50 years so don’t look at it as a benefit - it’s what I’ve paid in - tax is entirely different

Yes but it’s only worth about 70k and in a poor state of repair, it’s an old one up one down back to back. He couldn’t make loan repayments and I’m not sure they’d do one of those rolled interest loans as would soon be in negative equity. Not sure what the answer is, but the £200 to him is absolutely essential. Worked all his life but sadly no workplace pension and the private pension he has just tips over the edge of pension credit eligibility. Im sure many are in similar positions.

We don't get a penny in benefits for our planned only two kids.

We are saving £100k for their university and same for house deposits and throwing thousands into pensions to get a decent private pension income.

Yes we save, we have a bog standard house, older cars, nothing flash.

And we are going to be paying, happily, thousands more in tax, partly in the hope in a decade when we retire the NHS is more functional because we have private at the moment.

So we work hard, save hard and pay thousands into the system for the bare average back. And we don't mind this. We really don't.

So people who saved nothing, nothing for their retirement is not our fault. We are doing everything expected of us.

I think benefits should be targeted at people who are the most in need.

I would not take disability benefits away from anyone.

I think in an ideal world child benefit should be universal. But if the country can’t afford that, then I think the income limit should be reduced a little (perhaps back to where it was at the start of the year) to allow poorer pensioners - not all pensioners - to keep winter fuel. They are in more need of it than someone earning >£60k

In which case why are we so often told there are kids living in poverty?

If only the wealthy are able to have children then child poverty is abolished!

I can think of at least 2 other benefit changes I would like to see

• include child maintenance as an income and it should not be disregarded in full as it is now regardless of the amount for benefit purposes
• at present if you have a non dependent and you receive DLA/ PIP or Attendance allowance you do have a non dependent deduction from your uc/ housing benefit and council tax reduction. All non depends should make contributions to the household.