To give you the pensioners facts

[Moier]

So many threads about pensioners being well off.
I've just had my forecast.
I turn 66 in November .
Those born after September 23rd 1958 will not get the winter fuel allowance no matter what credits you are on.
Esa etc etc.
My forecast us £221 per week.
Also pensioners still have to pay rent.
Council house tenants will still pay bedroom tax.
Pensioners won't get council tax reduction.
Unless you have paid into a private pension .. pensioners will be the poorest they have ever been.
And we waited an extra 6 years for bugger all.
Stammer is the theif that has stolen all our golden hours.

Interest rates average out at 9% over the past 50 years. That meant saving was an attractive prospect. So in reality the pension pot over that period gained far more than todays workers will ever see.

Because people under 66 are expected to be working, not living off benefits. Therefore your income should be larger than the state pension. Anybody who isn't genuinely suffering bad health, whether physical or mentally, or have other good reason not to work does not need benefits. Get a job.

This is absolutely untrue ! Your mother would NEVER qualify for UC at 70.!

She needs to claim pension credit. Even on UC the capital cut off is 16k . On Pension Credit they don't even start considering capital until you have 10k in the bank and then reduce your weekly allowance by £1 for every £500 she has above 10k. So your mother would be entitled to Pension Credit less £4 a week if her state pension is below £221 a week. .. and subsequently would be entitled to winter fuel allowance. Even if she had as much as £221 she would still qualify for council tax reduction and a single person discount which is worth more than the WFA.

Regardless of being on PC or a higher state pension, if she rents she can claim housing benefit as well.

I suggest. You get on a good benefits calculator like 'Turn2Us' and get the facts rather than all the hysteria that's come up about this.

Oh dear , you do realise that the date will change as we get further away from 1958. You have completely misunderstood. In 2026 it will be those born after 1959 and so on.

Lockdowns were primarily to try to stop the spread of Covid. The sick and the elderly had no input into lockdown strategy, and they were subject to the same Covid restrictions and fines for breaking the rules. Boris didn’t seem to give a shit about protecting the elderly when he allowed those being discharged from hospital to go back into care homes with no Covid testing - how many died as a result of that ? And l didn’t see many pensioners queuing up for covid loans they never had any intention of paying back. The government made a pigs’ ear of Covid - pensioners are no more responsible for footing the bill than the sick and otherwise vulnerable who were also protected. Just when you think this thread couldn’t get any worse, now Covid is the fault of pensioners !!

@Moier you say your post is not about you but you also say “Stammer is the theif that has stolen all our golden hours” - clearly using all our - so which is it?

My 90 year old mother just misses the cut off amount. Fortunately she doesn't pay rent, but she explained that the WFA was instead of a rise in the basic pension.
Also older people tend to feel the cold more AND have to pay more out of their disposable income for certain things that younger people can do by themselves. For example she doesn't qualify for attendance allowance BUT can't wash her own hair so spends £20 per week on a wash/blow dry; can't bend to cut her toenails do has to pay for a chiropodist; can't lift a hoover/buckets of water so has to pay for a cleaner. All this mounts up.
Obviously she's fine as she's got me to pay her fuel bills , but I'll wager there will be other elderly people who won't turn on the heating and could become seriously ill with bronchitis if nothing else

I don’t know many from that period, including myself, who could afford to save while paying a mortgage with those interest rates - the average may have been 9% but the reality was several years in which they fluctuated at high rates. They’ve been lowest in recent years, dropping below 5% in 2001- the last time before that was in 1964.

100% this

I think this is what younger and fitter people won’t fully understand. I’m worried that disability benefits will be next for the chop. Mine pays for a cleaner twice a week, a carer to help with personal care and someone to tend the garden and mow. I get handyman help for various jobs - including changing lightbulbs - but that also has to be paid for. Everything that comes into the house has to be delivered - weekly shop, anything bought in, as l’m pretty much housebound. It all adds up frighteningly quickly and it’s difficult to see where l could cut down. Without the additional income from PIP l won’t be able to afford any of these things and can’t manage them myself.

Rosscameasdoody

Disability benefits do not qualify you for the WFP, and neither does carers allowance. Carers allowance stops when you claim state pension. This cohort will be no more entitled to WFA or pension credit than any other pensioner with no other income or savings.

...and THIS is exactly the problem. People with absolutely no understanding of the benefit system talking complete nonsense.

If you are in receipt of disability benefits as a Pensioner, then you qualify for a disability premium on your pension credit 'applicable amount' . The amount you can have coming in before you are counted out of pension credit. This pushes the weekly income you can have coming in.

So the real story is this.
If you have disability payments ie. The low rate of care for Attendance Allowance (72.65 per week) and you are on the 'cut off amount of state pension that all the fus is about £221 per week)
You will get an ADDITIONAL £78.50 in Pension credit. plus £35.73 per week reduction on your council tax for an average band D house.

Which also means you will get winter fuel allowance.

You are also wrong about being a carer. No you are right you don't get carers allowance because that is paid from the National Insurance pot , and as a pensioner you already have your pension from that. Instead you have what is called an underlying entitlement to carers allowance which puts a carers premium on your pension credit.

So the real story as a carer is this. If you are a pensioner caring for someone who gets PIP /DLA/AA care then if you are on that contentious amount of £221 per week, ( below that you get PC anyway) You would qualify for £42.60 a week in Pension Credit and £35.73 per week council tax reduction on an average band D home. ..and of course the winter fuel allowance.

In both scenarios if you rent you also get housing benefit. These figures also assume you have 10k savings in the bank.

This hysteria is pissing me off - but people giving out incorrect information is just not useful. There are over a million people out there who haven't claimed pension credit mostly down to rags like the Daily Mail telling them how they won't be entitled.

If you know a pensioner who is genuinely worried. Please get them to use the calculator https://benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/?gl=111ihr8shshgaMTU4MjUzOTM5NS4xNzI1OTA1NTU11gaaE1WBSX9YR8*MTcyNTkwNTU1NS4xLjAuMTcyNTkwNTU1NS4wLjAuMA..&ga=2.120527307.2132856709.1725905555-1582539395.1725905555

and make a claim

apply-for-pension-credit.service.gov.uk/start

Well as home ownership sits at around 75 % for todays pensioners and that 70% of the same demographic also have private pensions, I'd suggest you are in the minority.

Really a lot of this is so horrible. I suppose it starts with splitting people into groups ( anybody remember the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment? )

When you are young, you never think you'll be old somehow! Life takes twists and turns. Read some of what people , mostly women, have to say about caring for very elderly parents. The huge costs involved financial and emotional. The endless bailing out of their children. Ill health, various curve balls. Its horrible to say older people are getting freebies and off on cruises all the time. Hindsight, yes wonderful. Some of us just did our best with what we had.

surely isn’t wfa so little it benefits very few in real material terms (it’s not enough to support anyone to reasonably heat their home) and also so little that even those with very modest pensions can easily do without?

On the wireless today…someone suggested that the winter fuel allowance should be paid to only those pensioners in a one or two bedroom house.
Made sense to me - make downsizing more attractive, maybe help the housing crisis.

Yes, this.
Still angry about the Winter fuel payment, though.

Downsize where? If I want to stay local, I am up against cash buyers. Sorry I don't have the cash!

I suppose I could sell up and live in a deprived area. Perhaps that woudl be helpful?

If you own a property you have collateral. Do what everyone else needs to do when upsizing or in this case downsizing. Advertise your home and be prepared to be part of a chain.

Then you need to get someone else to complete the form. Something like a disability rights organisation or Age UK who are also good at it. Attendance Allowance is a tricky form and knowing the right words to complete it is important.

Once she has AA her entitlement to PC will kick in if her capital isn't over 20k and then she will get her WFA

@aliceinanwonderland But Attendance Allowance isn't means tested but is needs led. The form isn't easy and you have to write it as though you are on a "bad day" , and really read the questions as they seem to be very similar except for one word, but as long as she has a long term problem, so not just a broken arm for eg, she should likely be eligible. You then use that money for what you need, in her case cleaners and hairdressers but could as likely be gardener, window cleaner or carers. There are organisations around that will help with filling out the form, especially as they often prefer these things online

help me out here... are you currently working? if the answer is yes, where have you been hiding for the past 20 years? because i believe its been the law for employers to offer workplace pensions. if you don't have a workplace pension, the question is 'why not?'

if you are not working, what benefits do you currently get becuase i am guessing its not £221 a week so i'm curious how you will be worse off?

"Stammer is the theif that has stolen all our golden hours."

Bit OTT reaction to losing the £200 winter fuel allowance if you aren't on pension credit.

Ok cheers for that.

So you lived in a council house all your life and failed to build any assets or private pension whatsoever.

Why wouldn’t you do something about your life for the 50 years you were in work (assuming you were)? It’s a genuine question.

Stupid question- if you don’t work can you still open up a pension and pay into it? Specifically I’m thinking of carers that full time care for disabled child / parent etc. but also anyone that doesn’t work at all