To think all the targeted pensioner benefits ie bus pass, TV and winter fuel should be abolished...

[Figmentofmyimagination]

.... And the equivalent amount added to the pension credit of low income pensioners. That would overcome the logistical/cost based arguments against means testing these benefits.

Pensioners have also just been offered the pensioner bond; higher rates on their savings - which I suppose is fair enough since I don't know anyone my age with savings.

I knew when they cut child benefit for higher rate tax payers that it was the thin end of the wedge. It was partly why I was opposed to it, although I do lose out too. Once you remove one universal benefit, it becomes much easier to dismantle everything else, because those who no longer receive them don't feel the need to fight for them for others. The problem is, if you are going to remove benefits from one section of the population, it becomes obvious who the government favours and in this case, it is definitely not young families. They are desperate to win the grey vote and short of screeching down the road with a blue light and shouting through a loud speaker, promising to keep pensioner benefits will keep the grey vote. My worry though is, what else will they take from everyone else over the next 5 years to pay for it

In London, people on benefits get reduced bus fares. As do the disabled. Londoners voted in Ken Livingstone who introduced this policy. Boris has not had the gall to take it away. The remedy is in your hands.

This robbing Peter to pay Paul attitude is v depressing.

And a lot of people, young and old, voted Labour in the past because Labour did more for pensioners than the Conservatives. This concern for the elderly is relatively recent, tho' better late than never.

People keep saying that DC won't upset pensioners 'because they are more likely to vote' so isn't the answer for everyone else to vote.
I haven't always voted. I did when I was young because it was a privilege (and a novelty) tailed off in my 20s but have voted consistently from my 30s onwards, so now I am in my 60s I am of course likely to vote.
With postal votes available on request you don't even have to go to a Polling Station and round here most supermarkets have postboxes so you could combine voting with a trip to Tesco (or Waitrose if you prefer).

Thyemout Credit where it is due, please. When central government increased the age at which Londoners get their Freedom Pass so that eventually it will reach 66 it was Boris who in 2012 introduced the 60+ Pass, known as the Boris Card, which gives sixty-plussers who do not qualify for the Freedom Pass the same travel perks except that it does not apply to buses outside London.

So far from Boris "not having the gall" to restrict free travel he has (like Ken, like their predecessors for decades past) spread it wider. Of course some on this thread will say he should not have done.

The bus pass thing I'm in favour of keeping. I think any monetary value or saving attributed to this is nominal. Buses and trains have to run during the day and if OAPs weren't given passes they wouldn't generate any extra income because the same buses and trains would still be running with no passengers. It's wouldn't be worth the means test

Don't get how they can say families on 50k and above with dependants and mortgages are rich and deserve to have CB cut whilst an awful lot of pensioners on an awful lot more with mortgages paid off and no dependants get UB.

Message loud and clear- Tories are the party who will look after the grey vote and themselves whilst screwing everybody else.

Simply don't vote for them.

Hello LePetit . Yes, that's the bit I can't get my head round. My tory MP sent me a form to fill out, to say if there was anything in Central and local government I was unhappy with. I have filled it out and sent it off. He now knows how I feel. Doubt he gives a shit though!

People keep saying that DC won't upset pensioners 'because they are more likely to vote' so isn't the answer for everyone else to vote.

Yes, of course, we've only known this since the 70s .

What's your plan to increase voter turnout ?

I read a comment recently which made me think - someone said that one defining feature of slavery is having no vote ... the UK appears to have given the vote, and removed the choice of who to vote for ....

Sorry - Andrew. Tho' I could do without it being called the Boris Card.

No - it was Ken who introduced free travel for pensioners under the GLC. I don't think it existed under 'their predecessors'. I know it was a big thing for my parents. Kept my father off the road, at any rate.

Ah, Ken's "Fares fair" policy.

Ended by Bromley Council (Con.) .

Ye Gods.

I cannot believe this is being done again..., find the last thread, read that - it was less than 2 weeks ago.

The upshot was, as usual, some people are vehemently opposed to any pensioner receiving any benefit (or pension in some cases) and should give their houses to their kids before they need to sell it to go into a nursing home - if they don't they are greedy shites.

Others are passionately for pensioners getting any and all benefits - cos they know that not all pensioners have their own homes, 2 cruises a year, gold plated pensions, etc etc.

Others would like someone to think before they post the same old same old misinformed, media fuelled hysteria tut. Mainly because no age group has it much better than anyone else, 50 years ago was not significantly richer than today, there are inequities between every generation, the idea is to raise everyone's standard of living, not crucify one cohort for the sake of another.

And breath in...

Yes - the same Bromley Council who Ken took to the High Court when they tried to opt out of the Freedom pass, because 'our residents don't need it'.
Try to take it away from them now, though!

Kim147 what annoys me is that it is transparent vote rigging. There is something very insulting about all the emotive stuff in this speech by DC about wars and recessions. When you imagine how many focus groups will have turned over his draft wording to decide how it would "play" etc. I used to be strongly attached to the principle of universality because of its importance knitting us all together as a group who look after each other. I'm angry at the sheer crass cynicism on display in this speech and I despise the Tories for reducing political discourse to this level.

Thyemout Boris card like Boris bike, I fear - that's how it goes.

No, Ken did not introduce free travel in London for pensioners; he improved similar schemes previously run by the various London Boroughs and brought them under the GLC. I forget now who abolished the rules restricting the ours at which the cards can be used: I think Ken did the morning and the London Boroughs Association, which ran the scheme after the GLC and before the Mayor-and-Assembly which we now have, did the evening or the other way round. In truth it's been a smooth and cross-party (within London) curve - the only interruption came from central government in 2009 and as I say Boris largely reversed that.

Hear hear, Nomama - these threads are more frequent than the benefit ones at the moment but just as depressing. The 1% must be pissing themselves laughing.

Can you buy somebody's vote for £250?

I don't know merrymouse, but judging by Dave's 'cast iron' promise, you can definitely lose it by removing £250 [cynical]

What about his cast iron promise 'No top-down reorganisation of the NHS'? And 'No new grammar schools'?

I do hope someone is researching a full and frank TV prog on the subject of broken promises.

This is one of my favourites Thyme

"I'm not going to flannel you, I'm going to give it to you straight. I like the child benefit, I wouldn't change child benefit, I wouldn't means-test it, I don't think that is a good idea."........David Cameron....

nomama
Are we not allowed to discuss things twice for posters who maybe didn't see the other thread?
Mumsnet would be very dull if subjects were only allowed to be mentioned every 6 months.

who made you the mumsnet police

Nobody has said you can't, ihatethecold. But the lack of thought behind such posts is depressing, especially when seemingly on permanent repeat with a lot of posters equally permanently entrenched in quite a nasty mindset. be illuminating, if the O

And a quick search for similar posts would surely be illuminating, if an OP really wanted an answer, rather than an inflammatory 'debate'.

As for being the mumsnet police, I could ask you the same question? What makes you so special you can question my right to post my opinion?

Sauce for goose and gander, maybe?