What are all pensioners getting another £300 this winter??

[F0RBIDDENFRUIT]

They are amongst the richest people in the country, yes there are poor pensioners but a lot of them are way richer than anyone else.

£300 more for energy, none of the old people I know need this, they all have more money than their children.

Just because they vote, that is the only reason they can be doing this.

I just love @TheThinkingGoblin 's ridiculously superior contributions. I dunno if they really are an actuary, but the "I am considerably intellectually and morally superior to all of you UK peasants" is highly amsuing.

Maths

She’s American. Hence the inherent self belief and sense of superiority.

I was educated in the US & Canada.

We speak and write in proper English over there.

Ooh, Goblin. That is a giveaway. Are you from the US? Or is English your second language? 🤔

Cross Post.

Oh, Goblin.

Some might, you certainly do not. I could have, if I had wished to be unkind, corrected your grammar earlier on in the thread. But I wouldn’t want it to become a full time job.

The beauty of my position is that I get to watch it all go pear-shaped while preparing for the worst.

I don't need to be "right".

I prefer that the UK achieves a better long-term outcome.

Population dynamics and current economic and actuarial modelling suggests a very poor economic outlook for the country over 5Y and 10Y.

Its not me who is saying this. Its an entire group of us experts.

Fail to prepare at your own peril.

Well they do that as well.

Is "US and Canada" code for Russia?

Oh do fuck off dear.
And whilst you're at it, but stick your superiority up your arse

International kid.

Of the Diplomatic variety.

Fluent in 3 languages with a bit of working German (tough language to learn).

Hope you won't get in trouble for blowing your cover, Goblin.

What a bizarre post.

Still making excuses. Why am I not surprised.

Its MN after all. Have to run away from our problems and blame "someone" for them.

A story as old as time in the UK.

And btw, I have been coming on/off to the UK for over 30 years.

Thats the life of a global professional who gets paid well.

We go from country A to B to C.

The beauty of having multiple nationalities.

Don't give up your day job kid is my suggestion.

Its MN after all. Have to run away from our problems and blame "someone" for them

But this is what you have been doing. Implying that paying the state pension is going to wreck the UK and that pensioners are to blame for our woes.

So it's pensioners to blame for the state of the country's finances then. Nothing to do with the government lining it's own and all their friends' and family's pockets, or the pandemic or the war in Ukraine. Now we know.
I'm off to book a luxury holiday, just think where we can go if we add in the £200 heating allowance. And it's not as bad as it sounds because if we aren't here we save on heating. Perhaps that's the correct use after all.

That hasn't been my interpretation of her argument - it is that the entire tax system needs to be overhauled to tackle an unsustainable gap between govt spending and revenue generated through taxation.

Same every single year op. Nothings changed. They've always had it.

I'm only about half-way through reading this thread, so I apologise if anyone made this point earlier today.

Obviously, pensioners' incomes vary (sometimes dramatically), but I believe this particular allowance is going to be a universal benefit because - speaking very generally - many older people simply do not claim all the benefits they are entitled to claim. The government's own figures suggest that up to £1.7 billion in Pension Credit (at 12 June 2023) is NOT claimed by up to 850,000 households who are entitled to it:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-minister-urges-pensioners-to-check-eligibility-for-pension-credit-as-week-of-action-kicks-off#:~:text=Up%20to%20an%20estimated%20850%2C000,how%20much%20they%20could%20get.

I believe that studies have shown that many older people don't claim Pension Credit either because they don't realise they're eligible, or because they don't want to ask for what they perceive as 'state handouts'.

So, almost a million extra people who are eligible for Pension Credit, but don't claim it, will receive this winter fuel allowance.

Isn't that more important than paying the allowance to some (how many? probably not a million!) wealthy older people who receive it when they don't need it?

@TheThinkingGoblin well you are definitely coming across as an actuary .I quite liked the actuaries I met when I worked for a large non-profit educational pension fund/insurance company in the mid 80s in NY, but nobody sensible allowed actuaries out to meet the public/client

We all kne.w they .were clever, just not house-trained.

Sometimes I open a thread for the hell of it, then flip to the end to see where the thread has ended up - often in some other sphere of debate far from the original OP.

No skin in the game myself being a mere 61 with a way to go yet before any age-related benefits kick in. Except free Prescriptions as I painfully work my way to 67 or death.

Crikey, we are SO blessed.

This isn’t about individual pensioners. It’s about the fact that the balance of the demographics in the population is changing and there are more people over 65 as a proportion of the population which has economic implications. There are rich and poor in every age group. Having said that as an individual aged over 70 some of the generalisations on this thread make unpleasant reading. I do not vote conservative, I don’t vote only in my own interests. I was a SAHM for a total of 3 years, I worked for the NHS for 40 years. I am neither rich nor poor. It sounds like many people just seeing someone over 70 would have prejudices and assume otherwise. I agree that it’s not sustainable to make government pay outs just on age criteria.