Page 38 | What are all pensioners getting another £300 this winter??

F0RBIDDENFRUIT · 2023-08-25T12:12:49+00:00

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.

Teajenny7 · 27/08/2023 08:54

Two of my friends are married to older chaps. They used their extra fuel money to have an extra holiday. Personally, I think it should be means tested.

Iwasafool · 27/08/2023 09:09

Teajenny7 · 27/08/2023 08:54

Two of my friends are married to older chaps. They used their extra fuel money to have an extra holiday. Personally, I think it should be means tested.

Wow where did they go, round the world cruise? They'd be lucky if it covered train fare and a couple of nights in a Premier Inn.

BIossomtoes · 27/08/2023 09:11

Child poverty in the UK is 26% Pensioner poverty in the UK is 15%

Actually child poverty is 29% and pensioner poverty is 18%. Here are the links. Which are interesting because it’s much more complex than those simple figures. 44% of children in single parent families are living in poverty.

Those figures are all outrageous and we should be getting really angry about them and kicking out the government that’s created them.

https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pensioners+living+in+poverty+uk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

Child poverty facts and figures

The facts and figures show the reality of child poverty in the UK.There were 4.2 million children living in poverty in the UK in 2021-22.Households Below Average Income, Statistics on the number and percentage of people living in low income households...

https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

Yujismum · 27/08/2023 09:15

We lived in a tiny house with a big hole in the roof.

You were lucky. We lived in a house with no roof.
you were lucky we lived in a shoe box, all six of us ………….etc etc
Monty Python.

For goodness sake ALL generations have their own hardships and problems, and I speak as one of the ‘ice inside the window’ lot. But we need to help each other and not get drawn into the divide and rule games. Stop attacking each other. Children have their own needs, the elderly also AND all those in the middle. Yes it’s difficult to know how to prioritise needs but vitriolic attacks serve no one. We need a government of whatever colour to CARE about the people they supposedly serve.

explainthistomeplease · 27/08/2023 09:26

Absolutely @Yujismum
Too many on here are drawn to zero sum politics. And the politics of division. While neglecting the real problems.

Our nation and voters are in need of an injection of critical thinking.

Cakemakes · 27/08/2023 09:31

BIossomtoes · 27/08/2023 09:11

Child poverty in the UK is 26% Pensioner poverty in the UK is 15%

Actually child poverty is 29% and pensioner poverty is 18%. Here are the links. Which are interesting because it’s much more complex than those simple figures. 44% of children in single parent families are living in poverty.

Those figures are all outrageous and we should be getting really angry about them and kicking out the government that’s created them.

https://cpag.org.uk/child-poverty/child-poverty-facts-and-figures

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=pensioners+living+in+poverty+uk&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

We should have laws about feckless fathers having to pay an actual reasonable amount of maintenance for children like the US does. No weasling out of it through the large loopholes. Perhaps then they, along with women, would take more responsibility about bringing children they can't afford into the world. I know it's unpalatable and people will be along to say peoples circumstances change, but lots do have children they can't afford; and I don't mean 1 or 2 but several. I am assuming or extrapolating based on reading the daily mail, I grew up on an estate where this was the norm and it still is amongst my peers. Crying to everyone that they live in an unsuitable house for the amount of children they have, asking for freebies as they can't afford clothes and toys and then joyfully announcing yes another pregnancy. It's cruel. The same people tell me I'm cruel for just having 1- nope, just responsible.

Cakemakes · 27/08/2023 09:31

I am not assuming*

porridgecake · 27/08/2023 09:44

I think there is a serious problem in the UK with the way absent fathers are allowed to get away with not supporting their children. I see over and over again on MN fathers on good salaries refusing to pay maintenance.
This is not the fault of elderly people in general.

BellaBellla · 27/08/2023 09:46

So what does everyone propose then, eugenics and euthanasia? Bloody hell.

BellaBellla · 27/08/2023 09:48

Bring out your dead in the Holy Grail except bring out your nan and your surplus weans.

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 09:52

I am a bit fed up with posters lecturing us about the state of the UK being the fault of pensioners and being a harbinger of doom. Obviously there are posters who are far more intelligent than me but it doesn't mean they are right and everything they predict will come to pass. No one truly knows what the future holds. Not even actuaries.

Right now, we can afford to make sure everyone is warm and well fed without getting rid of every single non-means tested pensioner benefit and penalising old people for daring to have a comfortable life in their old age. I agree some of it might need tweaking but even then, as discussed, that is not always cost effective.

Wasn't the UK in dire financial straits just after the second World War? Yet we managed to create the NHS. Then in the financial crash of 2008 we went in a different direction and tried austerity. What a success that was.

What has really harmed the UK is the long term effects of Thatcherism, the past 13 years and the utter stupidity of Brexit. (And yes I know the pensioners will get the blame for that last one, but who decided to put having a referendum in their election manifeso. And why? We all know the answer to that).

Dontcallmescarface · 27/08/2023 09:54

Teajenny7 · 27/08/2023 08:54

Two of my friends are married to older chaps. They used their extra fuel money to have an extra holiday. Personally, I think it should be means tested.

I know people who used the £400 the government gave EVERY household last winter on extra holidays. All those were under 50 so what's your point?

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 09:59

So many £300 holidays about. Where can I get one?

BIossomtoes · 27/08/2023 10:04

What has really harmed the UK is the long term effects of Thatcherism, the past 13 years and the utter stupidity of Brexit. (And yes I know the pensioners will get the blame for that last one, but who decided to put having a referendum in their election manifeso. And why? We all know the answer to that).

Succinct and on the nail.

beguilingeyes · 27/08/2023 10:20

coalbunker · 27/08/2023 08:38

1 in 7 70 year olds own a second property.
1 in 5 are millionaires

Yes there are poor pensioners, but the most wealthy are in this group too.

This is such a misleading statement. I don't have a second home but I'm probably, technically a millionaire on paper. I have a three bedroomed house in London that I bought in 1987 and a company pension that I paid into for 40 years.
I can't spend any of it though so it's not really spare cash, as many of you seem to think. I'm still working and I have £178 in my savings account.
I'm still 5 years away from my state pension (I'm 62) so I don't get any allowances.

DriftingDora · 27/08/2023 10:26

explainthistomeplease · 27/08/2023 08:42

'The UK is financially crippled because of an ageing demographic with too many universal pensioner benefits.'

@TheThinkingGoblin this is NOT the reason the UK is financially crippled. Are we unique in having an aging demographic? Of course not. Don't be so daft and full of misguided hate.

Yes, this. The(Un)ThinkingGoblin is talking out of the back end yet again, in spite of being educated in the Land of the Free (and Donald Trump) - and Canada. But of course the USA is such a shining example.

beguilingeyes · 27/08/2023 10:32

TheThinkingGoblin · 27/08/2023 00:43

Its very telling that pensioners gloss over that fact.

Child poverty in the UK is 26%
Pensioner poverty in the UK is 15%

I have posted the graphs about this previously.

Just take a look at the waffle type answers, the pearl clutching, and the railing against [insert entity here] but no actual "its more important that the poor children get better". I specially love the "but we give to charity" or "we help our kids from time to time" comments (essentially this is a copout as it has been proven 100x over the years that private charity is no susbtitute for Govt programs)

It actually tells you a lot about these individuals.

What the Tories have actually created in the UK is a large group with a bottomless need for more and more. They have become downright mercenary and entitled to believe that they "deserve more" because "reasons".

Largely pointless to argue with them in my view because its like arguing with a think tank person who is paid to say X. Since, their livelihood depends on saying X, they will twist themselves into a veritable mental pretzel justifying their actions.

It really is a sad commentary on the state of the UK. It was not like this in the 90s. Not by a longshot.

Show quote history

It was absolutely like this in the 90s. It started in the 80s and Thatcherism. Remember Yuppies and 'Greed is good'? Or are you too young?
Suddenly it was every man for himself and devil take the hindmost...an attitude that seems to persist today.

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 10:41

I don't think TheThinkingGoblin knows much about the recent history of the UK. The NHS was on its knees in the 90s.

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 10:44

Goblin has also forgotten about the massive property crash of the 90s. All those repossessions. All the people stuck in negative equity. Such good times

BellaBellla · 27/08/2023 10:46

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 10:41

I don't think TheThinkingGoblin knows much about the recent history of the UK. The NHS was on its knees in the 90s.

Yup, there was a reason for the widespread joy in '97.

Iwasafool · 27/08/2023 10:50

I might be unusual but if people mean Jack Frost patterns on the window when they talk about ice on the inside of windows I loved it. It seemed so magical to get these beautiful patterns on my window, I don't think I was worried about the cold.

I think I'm easily pleased.

porridgecake · 27/08/2023 10:55

Iwasafool · 27/08/2023 10:50

I might be unusual but if people mean Jack Frost patterns on the window when they talk about ice on the inside of windows I loved it. It seemed so magical to get these beautiful patterns on my window, I don't think I was worried about the cold.

I think I'm easily pleased.

Yes. I remember Jack Frost and the beautiful.patterns.

BIossomtoes · 27/08/2023 10:57

Me too. I found it magical as a child as well and don’t remember feeling the cold. I doubt that my granny, who was in her eighties, would have found it particularly magical though.

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 11:11

We had one coal fire in the living room until I was about 9 when the magical central heating was installed. I don't remember being cold, but I must have been.

IClaudine · 27/08/2023 11:14

I doubt that my granny, who was in her eighties, would have found it particularly magical though

Those were the days, eh. Pensioners froze and ate Kit-e-Kat for dinner (Whiskas for Christmas). A few people on this thread would love all that to come back.