To think that with over 1million pensioners in poverty, removing the WFA makes Labour the nasty party, who tell blatant lies?

[TealTraybake]

And hypocritical lies at that. Just a few months ago Labour ‘vowed to be the party for pensioners’

‘Nearly 1 million people aged over 66 in the UK are living in deprivation, according to government statistics, the highest number since comparable records began.
Labour, which analysed figures from Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) records, has vowed to be the party for pensioners, with plans to insulate millions of homes and reduce energy bills. It has also “committed to retaining” the triple lock which guarantees annual rises to the state pension’

I understand the WFA should be means tested - but the current threshold is far too low. Food prices have gone up. Energy prices have gone up. Some pensioners need that WFA 🥺.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/apr/16/nearly-1m-uk-pensioners-deprivation-official-figures

I don’t need a house to be left. I have a large house of my own which I am fully expecting to have to sell as I go into retirement with the never ending changes to pensions.

Then wait and appreciate elderly people benefit from support and you won't have to wait long for the same houses to be on the market

Policy shouldn't force them out earlier

So, an elderly person who is pretty much housebound, but is on good terms with their neighbour, checks in with the chap who works in the local shop when they pop out to get a paper.... tries to go to church once a week just to get out and connect with others...
You really think they will be fine just moving away and suddenly having all their previous social needs met? I don't think so.
Isolation and loneliness are deadly. And both are a thing in the elderly. If you think it isn't, then your privilege is showing.

There aren’t enough people to support the elderly. The quicker everyone has a reality check on that the better people may prepare for their own future.

To add I'm not so averse to a carrot approach for downsizing in retirement . Eg some financial benefit such as reduction stamp duty

But it needs to be a choice. I am very much against any policy which means someone like the elderly on my street have to leave their homes out of a punitive measure. People can wait.

And so what are your answers to the ageing population problem, brains?

But surely you’ve read the copious posts here maintaining how wealthy the older generation is. Apparently they’re all bathing in champagne and having six holidays a year. Over 60% of pensioners are tax payers.

No they won’t unless they get pension credit.

My FIL is on pension credit as he’s disabled from a crumbling spine and arthritis. He gets a new, free mobility car, all insurance paid every 3 years and gets so much money it’s piling up in the bank. He has his heating on in the winter 24hrs.

He has a private pension aswell and hasn’t had a mortgage since the 1980s.

He WILL get WFA as he’s on pension credit.

My own mother is not entitled to pension credit so will not get WFA.

She is already wrapping herself in blankets and realises she can’t put her heating on yet.

Well don't make it much worse by shunting people out of their neighbourhoods to be lonelier somewhere else without support

You really will have an age crisis on your hands if that's what you're after

We need more of the working population actually working. Not stuck in minimum wages jobs or on the sick. We need to encourage higher rate tax payers to work more and not less. We need to encourage companies to want to employ here. Unfortunately as your post shows, we as a country, can’t think logically about it. Everyone expects money for free, the money tree has run out, yet only now it’s the pensioner suffering do people care. Not a peep when it’s other demographics. It’s about time a pretty wealthy cohort paid their fair share.

"Exactly. All these infantilising comments are crazy. All pensioners aren’t these frail, pale old people who don’t know how to operate in society or use a phone. The vast majority of them will be more than capable and wouldn’t exactly be happy with some of these portrayals."

@Mooneywoo I completely agree. That's why I said in an earlier post that a 70 year old today would have been born in 1954. People seem to have this image of a pensioner as being a doddery elderly person, when for the majority that is not the case. My dad was born in 1954 and - shock horror - knew how to use a computer, ran a successful business, had a mobile phone and all the rest of it. It's 2024 not 1924.

We need people in the minimum wage jobs.

Well there is an age range and there most certainly are pensioners who are frail, need support and are on the basic state pension

No one said all pensioners are... but the ones in my family were. No idea about technology etc.
Not everyone had the same upbringing.

gets so much money it’s piling up in the bank.

Doubtful. The maximum including pension credit is £220 a week. And only someone who received disability benefits is eligible for the motability scheme.

"Is it? Yet how many younger people are told that on here? Nope. I won;t agree on this. I think it’s about time that the older generation faces these tough choices too. For far too long they’ve been happy to see younger generations prices out of their home towns. Tough really"

@Aduvetday I agree. I see so much depression and despondency in the younger generations who cannot afford to even rent a decent home on their wages despite having spent upwards of £50k on HE, constantly being told it's their fault that they're failures as they're shunted from one financial crisis to another. Where is the support for them? What about their loneliness as they can't afford to even start a family never mind live in their own home towns (as someone who grew up in London-believe me I know what I'm talking about).

Whenever you use a policy that hits people just over the threshold it is the most vulnerable pensioners you are impacting

There are other ways to encouragement movement if that's what you're after rather than make someone like an elderly widow that I know have to leave their home and support

@Aduvetday

‘We need more of the working population actually working. Not stuck in minimum wages jobs’

Do you consider ‘minimum wage jobs’ as not working? Why?

‘Encourage higher rate tax payers to work more, not less’ ?

What?

For the love of god, no ones expecting wealthy people to receive ‘free money’. It is the ones who are not wealthy, who are in need, to whom I and others refer. But you are seemingly so stuck in your but what about me record, that you can’t possibly see nuance. Or logic..

"We need people in the minimum wage jobs."

@XenoBitch you're absolutely right, we do. But we live in a society where professionals cannot even afford to buy a home, and many households need two salaries just to keep the lights on.

Compare that to previous generations where the likes of a milkman could buy a home and support a family on the one, modest salary and it's no contest really.

Quite. They are told to shut up and keep paying their taxes. Can’t afford to live near where you grew up? Tough? Can’t afford children? Tough. Yet these very people are the ones paying for it all? Nah. For disclosure, I’m a higher, higher rate tax payer. I am pissed off at the injustice of people in my generation who are struggling (I am not) because they didn’t benefit from multi digit housing inflation. Just told to suck it up.

We don’t have enough people paying in. People like me are told to fuck off if we don’t like our huge tax bill. Higher earners are actively encouraged not to work both through societal attitudes and the tax system. The alarm bells have been ringing about this for years. Yet it only matters when the wealthiest generation lose their WFA? I’d like nothing more for it to be redistributed to those above the threshold but it won’t happen.

Pensioners have been protected whilst other people have been hammered. The money tree is dead. It’s not affordable anymore,

Do you know anyone who is an elderly, frail pensioner who is without their partner and who relies on the people around them?

If you do and they had to sell up and suffer from no support would you think good?

Have you read all of my posts on your own thread? Clearly not. Just hopping on a bandwagon.

"There are other ways to encouragement movement if that's what you're after rather than make someone like an elderly widow that I know have to leave their home and support."

@EasternStandard you are misunderstanding me. I do not think anyone should be forced to leave their home or face financial hardship. My issue is that the focus is always on pensioners as if the rest of society do not deserve the same level of care, understanding and support. Young people are told over and over again to suck it up, move somewhere cheaper, don't eat out, don't go out, don't buy new things, and so on.

So leave your community, don't socialise, don't eat well (no avocados!), don't have any hobbies, and do all of that without the prize at the end, which we are constantly told is home ownership. Well my parents' home nearly doubled in value in the space of six years between when they bought it and sold it. That's a lot of avocados.

No. However the reality is we can’t afford as a society to protect the elderly from these harsh decisions anymore. Maybe if people had thought about this before building a state of welfare dependents then maybe we wouldn’t be in this position. We may still have an affordable welfare system for people who need it.

Why because they live in a house someone younger can't afford?
For gods sake stop being a martyr, there will always be someone better off than you for all sorts of reasons but that's not a good reason to bring them down.