Nick Robinson on the Today programme said that people affected by withdrawing the Winter Fuel Allowance were "the wartime generation". AIBU to think he's wrong?

[HauntedBungalow]

Also, I am genuinely bored of this British obsession with referencing World War II when talking about unrelated random subjects.

World War II ended 80 years ago. The "wartime generation" don't need a Winter Fuel Allowance because they're all already dead, barring the odd 97 year old who is still living at home and paying all bills themselves.

Perhaps he meant born during/ just before the War? Many of those are still alive and well, and some will be disadvantaged.

You ANBU at all.

I think the phrase is still in common use by people who grew up with parents and grandparents who were indeed a "wartime generation", but these people have forgotten that they themselves have aged, their grandparents are long dead, parents likely also, but they still view all older people in the same way they did decades ago.

So the context has been forgotten and it's become conflated with people who are simply "old", even though they are far too young to remember WWII in the vast bulk of cases.

They mean those that were born during/just after, like my DF who is 78

YANBU - I thought the same. My grandparents were 'the wartime generation' and they've all been dead for some time at this point.

If you were born in 1940 you'd be 84 now. I'd call that the war time generation!
They may not have fought but they lived through a period of hardship and deprivation for sure. Years of rationing.

My parents are affected. Born in the fifties, the music of their youth is Motown and Fleetwood mac, not Vera Lynn!

1948 for my parents, so wartime generation

Yes and no. There aren't many people who were adults during the war left with us but there plenty who were children and it left a mark. The war left a long shadow of rationing and frugality for a couple of decades affecting the children of the time. There a lot of older people who are terrified of debt and over-economise on things like heating to stay in their small budgets.

My father in law uses his for an air bnb in Spain every year since he retired to add to his extra few holidays. His certainly not some poor post war gentleman 😅

My friend was 10 when the war ended. Does wartime generation just mean those who fought in the war or those whose early years were hugely impacted by the war?

Yes, how ridiculous. The vast majority of pensioners in this country won't remember WW2, because they were young children or (in most cases) not born yet. Only a tiny number of 95+ year olds will have served or worked during the war.

I’ve read this sort of thing so many times but Nick Robinson is old enough to know better, just about. He will be 61 on 5 October. The arithmetic is strange. It’s a sort of archetype, perhaps? If you’re over 65 then definitely you lived through WW2 whether you were actually alive then or not 🤷‍♀️

My grandad is 92 and still lives on his own in a park home with storage heaters which are the worst. He is definitely panicking about loosing the allowance. And yes, he remembers that later stage of WW2.

My dad was born during the war, he definitely does not need the winter fuel allowence.
I think people see pensioners as little old people with no money shivering around thier gas fire. They forget about people like my wife who is 70 now , still working 25 hours a week in a physical job..
We never needed her fuel allowance but had some nice city breaks with it.

I've been visiting mine this week (born in the 50s, so not wartime). They've both brought it up, angry at Starmer.

Yes, it is cold in the house, but you leave the back door and front window open for 18 hours per day so that the fucking cats can come and go as they please, and you just spent £60k on a new car.

My father remembers his first banana aged 10 or so in the early 50s, but I don't think that particularly qualifies him to get the WFA 70 years later.

(Though I can see the argument for giving the WFA to pensioners who get Attendance Allowance or other disability benefits, as they're more likely to be immobile and suffer from the cold. Someone should suggest this if they haven't already.)

That is true, but you could say the same thing about anyone under 20 today and Covid, and I don’t think many people would argue that even quite young children weren’t affected by that - there are still a lot of people who will remember something about WW2.

I heard him say that and I thought the same. It's more the baby boomer generation surely.

Both of my parents were born when rationing was still around. Both also profited heavily from the advent of Thatcherism and were one of the first generations of working class people to find themselves with significant disposable income. Neither of them ever voted Tory in their lives, but they certainly didn't suffer for being born immediately after the war. They're typical "boomers", are absolutely minted and have attained a level of affluence that similar people in their 20's and 30's today will never see outside of inheritance/a lottery win.

There is absolutely no reason to hand pensioners like my parents WFA, even though the fit the demographic of what some in here are claiming to be the "wartime" generation.

”Most” pensioners now are not wartime generation (ie those who lived through the war). It’s got to be a higher percentage of boomers than silent generation now surely.

I have family badly affected by it, really struggling and I'm worried for their health and survival, but they were born in the late 40s, i.e. boomers.

That's just not true. They're not all dead at all! Many people who were children in WW2 are still very much live including my grandparents. They lost their fathers, older brothers and uncles, often in families where grandfathers had already been killed in WW1. They lived very hard lives and then went onto have children themselves in the 50s with so much undiagnosed trauma.

I wish the WFA for older people was going to be distributed based on council tax banding. It seems much less likely to leave vulnerable older people in fuel poverty.

My Gran is 86 and was a child during the war and remembers it well.

However statistically most pensioners currently alive were born after the war

Mum remembers her Mickey Mouse gas mask and how scary it was to practice putting it on.

Dad remembers meeting his Dad for the first time when he was 4 years old. His Dad came back from RAF service in Malaysia clutching a mechanno set and a toy train.

My parents are aptly described as the wartime generation. Like many pensioners, they don't need the WFA. They might grumble, but they know their 2 disabled grandchildren have more need for decent health & social care than they have for the WFA.

I think my mum qualifies - born during the war, lost several uncles to it, and a father quite traumatised by what he'd seen. Impacted by the war definitely.
I will never agree with the removal of a universal WFA, just as I thought the Tories were fuckers for removing universal child benefit. It seems reactionary and cruel. I'm sick of hearing all the 'oh my rich parents don't need it - should have set up a dedicated 'return your WFA charity' instead for all those people willing to hand it back.