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?

I’m assuming I will be eligible for £0 government anything inc state pension by the time I get there tbh.

The glee that this announcement is being met with on Mumsnet, is pretty unpleasant. Clearly lots of people resent their parents and PILs hugely.

This place is fairly middle class, so most posters parents do fine. But there are very many who don't, but are just above the benefits level. So let's stop for a minute and consider them.

I'm in the middle with this. Think there should be some form of means testing but perhaps this is too low for single people who have to fund all costs on a single pension.

We have the wealthiest ever generation of pensioners and one of the highest levels of child poverty, I don't really see how not handing out free money to wealthy people is equivalent to means testing the families of under 7s.

Anyway, giving FSM to under 7s makes it less likely for parents to claim Pupil Premium entitlement so it saves the govt money.

In which case £1600 a month income is really rather good going!

This is more fair and proportionate. Every pensioner I know is wealthy and does not need this payment.

i just hope that those that do need it will all get it.

free TV licence over 75, cold weather payments, council tax paid, free boilers. The universal free licence was removed some years ago, most pensioners do not qualify for the council tax or boiler schemes.

But most people in this situation could be working.

Good decision that I’m fully on board with 👍

It won’t because those who have pension income of at least £10500 per year (including state pension) don’t get pension credit. That’s less than £900 per month to live on. Those are not wealthy pensioners.

What I don't understand about this is that for years we've been told that it's cheaper to give it to all pensioners than it is to put in the admin necessary to establish who gets it and who doesn't.

Which is it?

We don't, we own a small flat - service charges have gone up to £160 a month, council tax the same and we run a small old car. We're not destitute but careful and will miss the payment.

How are you funding your rent?
Op I don’t like this- it seems goady- you will know a lot of pensioners own and will have paid their mortgage off- doesn’t make them rich- I look at all the extras my dm and dmil pay for, in particular health costs, not to mention their usual bills and col and it’s scary given that they live off a pension and can’t make extra money the way working people can

I love my elderly relatives. None of them need the payments. Benefits should be means tested.

I don't think it's fair I don't think the full pension is much more than pension credit not all pensioners can afford it cruises and other luxuries certainly not my relatives. I've no doubt lots of people do not need the money but it made a difference to my relatives and I get really annoyed at the stereotype that all pensioners are well off.

My mum is really worried. We are south east based, she already struggles at times. I think it's a shit move from Labour and I'm really disappointed in them. It just appeals to those who think all boomers are living the life of Riley.

The state pension is not the same for everyone - how many times does this need saying. The basic state pension for older pensioners is circa £160 per week and many of them have other income via works or private pension that bring them up to a bit above the PC level which is £210 per week - so circa £10900 annually divided by 12 is about £900 per month.

Where do you think a single pensioners gets a state pension of £1600 - if they do they are paying tax on this sum.

It's awful. It's utterly heartless. Appalled at some of the reactions on here...this is going to harm so many frail vulnerable people in our communities. These are frail pensioners in a lot of cases.

We could start a discussion who actually "needs" which benefits, but that would be very long winded.
No, we really don't need these monies.
That aside, Comrades make me feel sick.

Maybe those own property should downsize. You can’t sit on £200k+ of assets and plead poverty.

I would guess that the admin is already paid for on this one. It will be done with the admin for who is eligible for PC

Absolutely the correct thing to do - taking it away from the people that do not need it and keeping it for people that do.

No doubt the usual cries of "but it will cost more to administer means testing than it will save" will appear. But clearly RR doesn't think so or she wouldn't have done it.

I’d prefer them to put the eligible salary for child benefit back down to £60k before stopping winter fuel payments tbh.

Or just removing the WFA for higher rate taxpayers.

This is going to hit people on very low incomes just above pension credit levels hard.

Nobody said they were wealthy. Lots will have a state and additional employment pensions. Lots of people will also continue working until later life. It shouldn't need to go to those that don't need it. People with millions of pounds in the bank would still get it and that's crazy.

I can imagine the comments on this site would be a tad different if the Conservatives had done this not to mention means test free school meals.