Genuine question re pensioner fuel payment cut

[Katypp]

Just this: How would the Labour supporters react if three weeks into a new Conservative Government, the chancellor cut the winter fuel payment to any pensioner with an income of more than £11k?
Would you think it was a reasonable thing to do or would it be considered cruel because it was the Tories implementing it, not Labour?
I would imagine Angela Raynor, Yvette Cooper and Wes Streeting would have been very vocal and worried about it.
Would the public finances argument wash if it was a Tory Government? It didn't when Cameron came into power.
What's different?

It's rampant hypocrisy. The other way round Labour front bench would be screaming evil tory cuts.

Get used to this as more is to come.

I'm interested to know when Labour will take away the fuel allowance that MPs have .

Crazy too that every 60 year old gets free prescriptions when most are working. My dh earning 40k a year and now getting free prescriptions. he is on a lot of medications but only pays £10 a month with pre paid certificate.

It would be impossible to pay private rent out of that.

That is your experience - but can you not get your brain round the fact that not all pensioners are that wealthy and surely they are worth a measly £4 per week per household to keep themselves warm over the winter months.
Frankly I don't care how much your parents have - they are disgraceful for accepting the £200 per year instead of donating it.

.
Can you not envisage that millions of pensioners who worked hard all ttheir lives are not on such riches and NEED this extra help.

I've not heard of any talk of reducing UC, they've ramped it up a lot in recent years.

We already have the lowest pension in Europe ( EU countries) . Not everyone has a private and go those that do they aren't always that big.

The triple lock is what is supposed to keep pensions in line with the cost of living.

Is 11k per year minimum wage? Or living wage? A cut off of 11k per year seems very low. The cut off should be at least min/living wage.

I don't agree with taking from pensioners first though, unless its based on a means test. There are other areas where spending should be cut first imo.

And the fuel cap should be brought back in. At a reasonable rate.

I'm not Labour btw.

www.theipsa.org.uk/mp-staffing-business-costs/your-mp/rachel-reeves/4031

I’m hoping that we’ll see downsizing from family sized homes and using the equity to pay for their retirement costs instead of sitting on property wealth and requiring state top ups due to low income.

If someone just has state pension, they would get most of their rent paid by housing benefit. There is plenty of help. Get even £1 of pension credit and you get all your rent and council tax paid for you but if are a few pounds above the pension credit threshold you'd still get a fair bit of your rent paid.

Full details on previous link

Typically voters act selfishly and don't care if services or benefits are cut so long as it doesn't impact them. Equally voters are supportive of tax increases so long as it doesn't impact them.

You see it all the time on MN "they should tax the rich more " with rich being defined as anyone on 50% more than the poster.

If you hadn't noticed there are plenty of vociferous individuals on the Labour side. With regards to Yvette Cooper et al, they've probably been told to button it and toe the party line.

Apart from that just watch, everything that's not nailed down is going to be means tested to pay for the Tory profligacy (and the bloody war in Ukraine). I reckon this is only the start.

So they are not just on 11k then.

For those of you unaware of Starmer's huge pension, he even had a law passed mentioning him by name.

The Pensions Increase (Pension Scheme for Keir Starmer QC) Regulations 2013

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65037136

From the article:
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has been accused of hypocrisy by Conservatives over a tax exempt pension deal he has from a previous job.
Sir Keir criticised measures in the Budget which scrapped the £1m cap on lifetime pensions savings.
The Telegraph reported, external Sir Keir got a special "tax unregistered" pension scheme when he stood down as Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in 2013.
Labour says it was standard practice for retiring DPPs to get such a deal.
But senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith told The Telegraph it made a "mockery" of Labour's position on the lifetime pension allowance, and was as "close to hypocrisy as it is possible to get".
Tory MP Andrea Leadsom told the BBC's Politics Live it was an example of "extraordinary hypocrisy".

VilanelleTutu · Today 12:57
I’m hoping that we’ll see downsizing from family sized homes and using the equity to pay for their retirement costs instead of sitting on property wealth and requiring state top ups due to low income”

We’re doing exactly this. Not yet pensioners, 65 and 60. Took us a hell of a time to find an appropriate apartment, though. We’re downsizing and releasing funds for our adult kids and our future care costs yes, but we didn’t want to live in a rabbit hutch!
Lack of suitable properties to downsize into is a big problem.

Not if they have rent to pay no. If they own their own house then maybe but likely to still qualify for some council tax reduction.

I think people forget if the pensioner gets pension credit they still get it.
If the pensioner is 80 - they also get it.

They say 800,000 people who are eligible for pension credit aren’t claiming it. I’d imagine these will be the people whose only income is state pension or slightly above. They need a drive to ensure everyone who is eligible is claiming. They might well still be entitled to their winter fuel allowance.

Can you point to where i can find this information as i work for a charity and we have still been unable to confirm this this week? The over 80's still being eligible I mean not the pension credit bit.

All free or concessionary travel for older people should be tied to the state pension age.

I find it a very odd strategy that they've started with this policy, bearing in mind that the actual budget is not until October. Why announce this contentious policy now? - it smacks of stoking inter-generational warfare. It's so wrong on so many levels that people over the threshold for pension credit but under £12k p.a. are now no longer entitled to WFA. I agree wealthy people shouldn't have it - why not take it off higher rate taxpayer pensioners? The Inland Revenue have the data and could easily provide this to enable this to happen.

So if suddenly 800k people start claiming pension credit which they weren't claiming before, it massively reduces the saving made by withdrawing the WFA. They never think anything through properly, do they?

I have just run a benefits checker on two new state pensioners with no assest paying rent of £700 a month. They would be eligible for £22 a week housing benefit and £23 a week council tax benefit. So definitely not 'most' of their housing costs covered at all