WTF? £600 winter fuel allowance for all pensioners!

[user1497207191]

No wonder the country has no money and the deficit/debt is getting bigger.

MIL just phoned up saying she'd got a letter telling her £600 was on the way to her and asking why, when she doesn't need it?

Just why??? She's not claiming means tested benefits. Her state and her husband's occupational pension are already far more than she needs to live on, meaning she saves a few hundred pounds a month into ISAs (which already stand at over £100k). Owns her own house, so no rent/mortgage.

Why the hell can't this money be directed at those who actually need it or more worthy causes? It's insane to keep throwing money at people who don't need it.

She doesn't need it, she doesn't want it. She wouldn't miss it if it wasn't paid to her.

If they can means test the child benefit and claw it back from those earning over £50k, why can't they come up with a way of ensuring winter fuel allowance is only paid to those who may need it? Why not only paid to those pensioners claiming pension credits, or rent allowance, or whatever?

Isn't it put directly in to their supplier account? Speaking as a single, disabled mother of 3 who won't see anything like this, YANBU op it seems mad that this is just given with no financial reason. Agree with those who say its because the Tories need pensioner votes.

Many just paid less on their energy accounts. Some donated the equivalent.

And, for the record, I've never voted Tory, and wouldn't ever vote for them. Labour and the LDs have already said it needs to stay anyway.

If anyone in your home was on DLA/PIP/AA, you should have got the non means tested £150 disability payments for each one.

Because Pensioners don't get the TV licence anymore, why shouldn't they get help with something.

Older people feel the cold more too.

Some younger people do too. But we don't get an extra help

Exactly if you dont want it, give it away.

Why wouldn't it be the same? A family will be eligible for more financial help than a pensioner if they are struggling.

Is it incredibly unlikely? I'm 70 and I've been bringing up teenage grandson for some years, I'm also carer for disabled husband but can't get carers allowance.

There are always people on the borders of any benefit who miss out. That's life.

We didn’t when we were younger either.

Absolutely. People on benefits get everything.

I assume you have a condition affecting your circulation which means you're constantly cold?

You will when your a pensioner.

Younger People don't feel the cold the same as older people.

If you've got a disability that affects your circulation, then you can apply for PIP which pays for the extra costs of being disabled.

Beat me to it @Zebedee55.

Well, that's what you need to do. Perfectly fit younger people can keep themselves warm.

Its so much harder when mobility decreases, and health conditions increase.

This 70 year old pensioner has no desire to do her own gardening. Having said that I had no desire to do it when I was 20/30/40/50 or 60. I paid someone else to do it.

I've never voted Tory either, I realise the way I've written it, but that wasn't aimed at you in particular, just at the OP in general. Yes I did get that, but there is a huge difference between that and £600. I'm sure most people's energy accounts aren't looking great at the moment and the gap just keeps getting bigger.

So because you don't get it older people shouldn't either? Why aren't you campaigning to get more help with fuel bills, or better still, to end the reliance on tax credits and other benefits and force employers to pay a living wage?

I see people are still popping up saying the Tories are bribing pensioners to vote for them. I wonder who the biggest users of the NHS are, the people who see it up close and personal and know what an appalling mess it's in? Not to mention the fact that older people have younger family members who tell them about the state of the education system, transport problems, lack of employment protections, the horrific cost of housing, etc etc. Why would old people's votes be changed by getting £250 from the government rather than all these other considerations, especially as every single political party would be paying it too?

It would take more than a few quid to make me vote Tory - a brain transplant might do it.

I agree - msny, of all ages, are struggling with fuel costs. And the government are warning of higher costs again, because of this latest Middle Eastern conflict.

It would have been helpful if anyone on disability payment could have been helped more, but unless they were entitled to the means tested COL payments, it was a fixed sum.

I think it involved two £150 payments, equalling £300, but they could have topped it up.

Because the cost of means testing everyone would probably far exceed the cost of just giving out the cash to all.

It shouldn't be that way, but the government gives out obscenely expensive contracts to their mates who run inefficient and corrupt companies so the taxpayer ends up paying 10x as much as these things normally cost.

Amazing how the administrative burden logic doesn’t apply to people on benefits whom they assume won’t vote Tory.

Yes, it does. Most of those on disability benefits wouldn't vote Tory.

They get fixed amounts of DLA/PIP/AA, which is dependent only on health. You can be a millionaire and get them.

WFA is a once a year payment, it has only increased because of the higher fuel costs.

Next year, I expect it'll be back to normal amounts.

Means testing costs a lot, and probably wouldn't be cost effective for a yearly payment.

Please tell me how my parents were meant to save up when they didn't get child benefit for me (the first child), didn't get maternity allowance, didn't get any benefits of any sort.

Both my parents left school and started work at 14. They both worked into their 60's. Mum barely took any time off work when she had me and my 2 siblings (as I said there was no maternity pay then). She worked evenings so she could be home with us during the day (no free childcare).

They never had high paying jobs and were never well off. In fact they often went without food to make sure me and my siblings had enough to eat.

From when I was born until I was 18 we had 3 holidays as a family, all cheap ones in the UK.

They lived in a 2 bed council house until they were in their 60's when me and my siblings bought them a house and paid the mortgage on it for 25 years.

You are a totally ignorant nasty person. I hope you don't pass your awful attributes to your children

Yes it’s called getting old.
Its a thing.
Older people feel the cold more, get Ill from it more, need hospitalisation more and die from it.

So if the Government can help the elderly from a simple preventable death and hospitalisation this is the cheapest way to do it.
If the Government can stop extra surges in hospitalisations due many elderly not being able to afford the heating then they should.

Shaneful comments. Your Parents are very lucky. Why don't you just go out and shoot all the elderly people. You'll be old yourself one day.

I really REALLY don't want this intergenerational bitterness. My DM at 88 receives the full £600, because she is over 80, and the only occupant in her 2 up 2 down terraced house. She no longer has a car so relies on family to take her anywhere further than she can walk; fortunately she's still in good enough shape to shop mostly on foot.

My father, I really don't know. He'll be 90 next month. But he stiffed her in the divorce, 40 years ago, so we are LC. He retired from the Navy, and set up a company, has a flat in Switzerland. I am sure it's all legal and paid for. But he was irate when his parents divided their estate in two, between their children and then sub-divided his half to ensure that the children of his first marriage got something. It was about £3,500 (in 2005) and paid for a nice holiday, but it was awesomely fair of them. Otherwise, Ddad would have left everything to his second family via his second wife, who is lovely for the record. My dad has never set eyes on, much less met my son, who is now 24. Perhaps understandbly, DS has no interest in his grandfather's life.