To rant about government financial help

[Alittlenonsensenowandthen]

Firstly, I'll say that I've previously been in receipt of financial help from govt and extremely grateful and also want those who need help to be helped, but...
I've now met two people (retired) who are telling me what they're spending their fuel allowance on (new flat screen TV, holidays, new sofas). This is not an agiest or benefit bashing thread but it just gets my goat that there are people happily spending money given for heating on luxuries. It's not actually their fault - they haven't asked for the money, it wasn't means tested so arguably why not spend it and see it as bonus money. If govt wants to help, it needs to pay for things directly surely?
Just really bugging me at the moment because we're fine financially but only just, and we earn too much for help.
Argh! Just needed a rant to the ether this eve!

I’ve got a bus pass and have never used it. The application is online, it takes five minutes.

Givemeasunnyday

Perhaps you live in a better insulated house, or a small terrace that gains heat from its neighbours. Frozen windows, being able to see your own breath are real enough, sleeping fully clothed, with a hat, are everyday experiences for plenty of people in this country. Fortunately I am not one of them anymore but I was at one time. Have some compassion, do you want 70+ aged people to be living like this? What does that say about you as a person or us as a society. We should be better than this.

Exactly my thought!

Blossomtoes

It may so if you can get the photo to load online. It's a joke in this area, I understand they have withdrawn electronic applications and now all must be submitted by post. Not all local authorities are the same.

I've never lived in a city so it's not that. I suspect that it might be the different climate, while it gets cold here it isn't as damp as the UK - I've never had mould in any of my houses, even though at times I dry washing inside in winter.

I've been entitled to it for a while now. Haven't applied because I drive.

How dare you speak to me like that! I merely wondered why it is that I've never had to scrape ice off my windows when others obviously have!! Where did I say I had no compassion? I live in a country where central heating isn't a thing, we generally just heat the rooms we spend the most time in, that is the reality for most of us - young and elderly. I feel compassion for those who can't afford any form of heating at all, but most of us manage. I think the idea that every room in a house should be heated constantly, and people wandering around in tee shirts in the middle of winter, both wasteful and ridiculous.

You jumping in with your wildly inaccurate assumptions tells me a lot about you. Do better.

My DP gets the winter fuel.allowence, £500 this year. We both work, don't need it as we live in a small 2 bedroom flat and are in credit on our energy bills. Last year we used it for a holiday.
This year we will used it to pay for a few long weekends we have planned to see friends and family.
If the government want to give us free money I'm not complaining, everyone got the £67 a month last year off thier energy bills l expect many people who reviced that did not need it either.

Because a) that would be too expensive for the government. B) Pensioners use more power to heat their homes as many spend a lot of time inside c) it's inflationary d,) pensioners are more likely to vote Tory e) it's a crude tool to attempt to fix the problem of pensioners living in poverty

Wasn't the payment brought in by the Labour government, maybe they will scrap it as if it's not the demographic that votes for them.

Labour governments aren’t known for vote bribery, that tends to be a Tory game.

they will probably scrap it then

Why?

Didn’t Edwina Currie tell older people to wear a woolly hat and jumper etc in the house. She was a Tories mp.
It shouldn’t be a race to the bottom.

Halloweensweets

"as for interest rates, as has been said time and time again on these threads, house prices were significantly cheaper in the 80s so the amount borrowed (and therefore interest paid) was much less. Paying 5% interest on £250k borrowed for example is £12500 a year. Paying 15% on £50k borrowed is £7500 a year."

This doesn't mean that mortgage payers in the 80s were paying considerably less, what is relevant is the % of pay that it took to cover the mortgage. The figures you quote do not take into account average wages in the 80s. When mortgages were at 15% it took 2/3rds of our income to cover the mortgage.

Are you a stay at home parent? If so, by not claiming and then paying back your Child Benefit via tax self assessment, you are missing out on your free National Insurance contributions - which, ironically, would ensure you qualify for a state pension.

1. the child benefit claw back is implemented horribly and extremely unfairly. The fact that two earners with a combined income of £99k can still get full child benefit but a single parent on £51k has to pay some back is ludicrous. I can just see the emotive newspaper headlines about how the government is penalising vulnerable widows who’ve inherited good pensions from their husbands, while richer couples still receive it.
2. Very small numbers of very rich pensioners are submitting tax returns. Taking that down to £50k pulls far more people into that. It adds complexity for people - do they need to inform DWP (who are not HMRC, and that matters; CB is paid by HMRC), what are the actual rules, how do you even submit a tax return?

Paying everyone is cheaper, easier and means those who need it don’t miss out because they didn’t know to claim/were ashamed/etc.

It’s actually depressing how many people
now talk about the very poorly designed CB clawback as if it’s not dreadful.

I did feel it was my duty to have a conversation along the lines of "It's no my place to tell you how to spend your money but PIP benefit is designed to help people manage costs associated with their disability. Such costs may include..."

PIP is not designed to help people manage costs to do with their disability. It's designed to help people with disabilities make their lives easier in whatever way they can, whether that's buying aids to help with daily tasks, two holidays a year in the sun, paying the bills or just putting it in savings account.

How incredibly rude and patronising of you to actually speak to someone in that way.

The fuel allowance isn't means tested because it was worked out it would cost more to means test it then just give it to everyone in that bracket.

I honestly just don't understand getting annoyed about other people and their finances. Stop being bitter about other people.

Benefits like this are universal for a reason, everybody pays in what they can and everybody benefits. If you start means testing every penny people get then not only is it incredibly expensive to do but it also undermines the whole concept of our social security system.

No it's not your duty to condescendingly tell people getting PIP how to spend their PIP money. A mobile phone isn't even a luxury. Many disabled people rely on their phones for huge aspects of their life.

Catza · Yesterday 18:07

It's sad but from my experience it is just few bad apples who somehow influence general narrative about benefits. I work with people with chronic health conditions and often help them to apply for PIP. Only once have I been told that money was spent on car insurance and a new mobile phone. I did feel it was my duty to have a conversation along the lines of "It's no my place to tell you how to spend your money but PIP benefit is designed to help people manage costs associated with their disability. Such costs may include..."
I would say the vast majority are using the money appropriately.”

Idiotic argument. Cars and phones are absolute lifelines for many disabled people.

‘Firstly, I'll say that I've previously been in receipt of financial help from govt’

OP how would you feel if someone questioned whether you deserved the benefits you have claimed in the past? Because I am sure someone somewhere would be judging you.

Despite being a WASPI and a boomer I don't (or didn't) begrudge my taxes (that I still pay), going towards the likes of the OP. And I think the child benefit fiasco is ridiculous and unfair. I don't need the WFA and I'm sure I will dispense it better than the government would.