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!

Exactly. It would be simple to claw it back from those who "don't need it" in exactly the same way they claw back child benefit for those earning over £50k!

Just do the same. Any pensioners earning over £50k have to pay it back through their tax return.

Agreed sick of the Boomer hate.

It would be simple to claw it back from those who "don't need it"

Clarify how this 'need' will be defined and operated in practical terms.

2 million pensioners live in poverty but you choose to see as representative a few super rich ones? I don't know a single pensioner with more than one property, why is your contribution any more relevant than mine?

It’s not just about the practicality and cost though. Giving a universal benefit ensures it’s received by the people who really need it. For what it’s worth, I was against the child benefit changes.

Don’t forget pensioners are subject to income tax as well, so the better off ones are still paying in every year.

None of the pensioners in my family and friends had or has any rental properties- some are/were renters.

None of these benefits will still be available when those of us who currently work to pay all the taxes have retired. It's time there was a huge reform of benefits so that all the Boomers on final salary pensions who paid off their mortgages donkeys years ago stop getting everything paid for to even things up a bit between the generations.

It's time there was a huge reform of benefits so that all the Boomers on final salary pensions who paid off their mortgages donkeys years ago stop getting everything paid for to even things up a bit between the generations

OK, I'll bite.

1. my final salary pension is £ 3,600 a year. And I pay tax on it.
2. my mortgage was paid off a few years ago. i did that myself, no-one handed it to me
3. I get prescription charges, eye tests and heating allowance. Set that against the fact that I have been paying tax since 1975 and will pay tax to the day I die.

When you say 'huge reform of benefits,' what you really mean of course is 'take it from the boomers, give it to me.' I've been in countries where pensioners are begging in the street so they can eat. Seems to me some people would love that to be happening here to 'even things up between the generations.'

People of pension age are begging, that should have read. They didn't have that safety net because their political system that looked after them had collapsed.

processing otherwise completely unnecessary tax returns costs HMRC money. And it places an unreasonable burden on pensioners, frankly, in having to complete them.

Pragmatic decisions about benefits are just that: pragmatic.

But still people are totally motivated by what they think others shouldn’t have. It’s depressing.

This always makes.me laugh too. Who doesn't have a flat screen tv nowadays (if you have any kind of TV at all) 😆 I mean they were a luxury when I was a kid in the 80s/90s but where would you even buy an old style TV from now?

But still people are totally motivated by what they think others shouldn’t have. It’s depressing

There's a whole thread about parents being entitled to Christmas off at the expense of childfree colleagues that's a real eyeopener in that respect. Basically some posters saying 'I want it and I don't see why you should have it when I'm more entitled to it and can make better use of it.' TruthSeeker2023's argument but over 30 plus pages.

As you say. Depressing.

i think it ought to be acknowledged that government money is finite, and deciding to spend more money in one place means cutting back in another place.

would you rather pensioners with an income of over say £30k and no mortgage went without and there was more funding put into eg CAMHS?

But if you means test the WFA, there would be no money left over to do anything else, because it would cost more than making it universal.

I saw that and despaired.

The individualism and selfishness across the political spectrum in 2023 is dire. The sense of decision making for the good of society disappears as everyone - wherever they sit on the left-right spectrum - screams ‘but what about ME?’

I grew up without heating - south east england, and yeah I personally scraped ice from the inside of the windows in my bedroom.

Its miserable when you awake up and need to get ready for school (4 mile walk) and you can see your breathe in the air.

I refuse to be cold in my house now, ever

Is your final salary pension of £ 3,600 a year your only income?

@Elvis1956 You say: here's an economic principle called the multiplier effect. If we take the 600 and assume everyone will save 10% and spend the rest, it's £540 spent. That money is then spent =£486, then 437.40. So already the economy had benefited by spending of 549+486+437.40. So in 3'steps it's become1472.40...which is a boost to the UK economy

Can you explain this in more detail? I don't understand the figures. I do understand the boost, though - didn't Donald Trump do this when he came into office? I seem to remember he gave everyone a couple of hundred dollars or so and said they had to spend it to boost the economy.

Is your final salary pension of £ 3,600 a year your only income?

I put that in response to a poster saying boomers on final salary pensions should not have everything paid for - presumably under the impression that we all have these 'generous gold plated final salary pensions' that get referred to so often when the subject of boomers and pensions arise. My point was that just because someone has a final salary pension doesn't automatically mean it's a huge sum.

What part of my income it makes up is my business.

Why are people concerned about a small winter fuel payment given to people that live in this country & have paid tax & NI over their working lives

Compared to how much the Government is spending per day here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-67212103

Why are people concerned about a small winter fuel payment given to people that live in this country & have paid tax & NI over their working lives

I was very grateful for it last winter. It meant when we had that cold spell in December I could whack the heating up and not worry about the cost. Plus some of it went to the food bank.

And the usual payment of £ 200 is £ 40 a month for the winter months Nov-March. It's only with the high energy bills the last couple of years pensioners have had extra. Sorry to be so money grabbing, all.

@VisitorfromAbroad2

Why are people concerned about a small winter fuel payment given to people

It may be "small", but by paying it to all, it costs the country a couple of billion pounds, which is a substantial amount that the country is BORROWING to pay, and thus incurring debt interest for years to come which makes the total cost even higher.

To be clear
I agree with people receiving the winter fuel payment

Stand for election on that ticket - you can call your party “shaft the boomers”