What a depressing thread. The golf club pensioners are as typical of the majority as the woman on benefits who wants to live in a £1 million house in Belgravia. Y y to Ex-pat's last post. Wake up people and see what they are doing, setting one disadvantaged group against another.
i'm in favour of universal benefits because they recognise that there are stages in life when you have additional expenses - children cost money and so does being old. Dentists, opticians, medicine, not being able to walk as far, having to pay people to do what you used to be able to do yourself. I think they are a mark of a civilised society. 'To each according to their need'.
Yes, rich people do not need those benefits. So get it back through tax, not, as this government has done, introduce tax CUTS for the rich. Remember what happened with child benefit. Clegg stood up in parliament, like Squealer in Animal Farm, and argued that he personally didn't need it. And, like sheep, we all agreed. Then it turned out that their definition of 'rich' turned out to be someone like a SAHM I know, three children under 7, living in a 2 bed terrace, teacher husband earning just over the limit, who was going to lose her food budget. (Big mortgage, London house prices, SAHM because nursery fees £60 p.d. Not exactly rolling in it.) I've already seen it suggested that WFA and bus pass should only be for those on pension credit.
Hard cases make bad law. There aren't enough 'rich' pensioners to make it worth removing benefits just from them. Means testing is v expensive. Which is why all other governments of both parties have left universal benefits alone.