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.

I must admit @HauntedBungalow, having read more of your subsequent posts, you are making yourself look a little ignorant . Probably best if you don't add any more.

You sound lovely.

yes it’s parents like my own that will be affected. They are the war time generation that were kids at the time and in my families case, were evacuated out of London while the bombs fell.

You are sick of them you say? Well don’t worry. They’ll be dead soon enough 👌

My mum is 82, born in 1942. She doesn't remember the war but does remember rationing. She also remembers being able to see an. NHS dentist for free twice a year, buying their first house for three times my dad's very average salary (she worked FT but her wage wasn't taken into account for the mortgage), retired at 60 with a final salary pension. She's currently on holiday in Australia.

She wouldn't consider herself to be the "wartime generation" as she has no memory of the war. My MIL is 10 years older, born in 1932, and does remember the war. I'd consider her to be part of the wartime generation.

@YogaForDummies my DM wasn’t in nappies during the war. Yes she was a child so wasn’t fighting but still had memories of air raids and bomb sites

My problem with the WFA is that it is a really inefficient way to address fuel poverty amongst pensioners.

Some pensioners seem to use energy really inefficiently - like the poster upthread describing her dad using electric blankets and heaters rather than the GCH - that is likely to be more expensive.

Some who have never switched may save £300 a year just by moving to a new tariff.

It needs to be targeted at actual measures to help reduce energy bills for the poorest, not flung at every person over 65 in the hope some people will use it to pay energy bills.

TL:DR it's a shit policy and should be replaced completely with better targeted help for those that really need it.

Food & other rationing continued until the mid 1950s in the UK
So this occurred for people who are 70 +

They lived through hardship & the end of WW11

I think the Tory bots and bitter right wingers on this site are deliberately misunderstanding 'means testing ' for WFA.

The notion of freezing pensioners is absolute nonsense, if an old person needs the allowance they will get it. No question.

There are 3 million millionaire pensioners in this country. They are the ones that don't need it and won't miss it, unless they are incredibly greedy and selfish.

The same people who are faux outraged about this change also seem to be the same ones that were happy for the sick and disabled to be means tested. Strange that.

DM was born during an air raid and is still alive and well.

I think what a lot of people don't realise is how cold some older people get. I was out walking DM's dog with her recently in the sunshine. I was wearing a tee shirt. DM was wearing a lambswool jumper and a fleece gilet. She puts her heating on sooner in the year, and longer during the day, than I would, despite wearing several warm layers with a hot water bottle down her front,

Secondly, lots of elderly people have health and or mobility issues & do not move around very much. Therefore they feel the cold more than people who are more mobile.

They won't freeze, if they need the WFA they will still get it.

This 'awful government ' is just trying to sort out the mess the last 14 years of corruption and greed has caused.

There will be people just above the (very low) cut off point who need it but don’t get it.

Someone on £218 a week will get it. Someone on £222 a week may not

There are 3 million millionaire pensioners in this country.

Technically, if DH retired next week, he would be a millionaire pensioner (combining the house and his pension pot) -- for a while. It's just that the pension would then have to last the length of a retirement, and it's kind of useful to have somewhere to live.

The flapping over this issue is getting quite ridiculous. It's really very little anyway and many of those who receive it currently don't need it. Maybe the cut off is a little low, but it is £2-300 for a whole year. The Tories have left us in a position where choices like this become necessary. Yes I'd like to see expenses reform for MPs too, but that is a different issue.

There are a lot more pensioners who aren’t millionaires

The wording is deliberate to make you think that these were people who fought in the wars for us and so the government are being especially cruel. The reality is there will be very few of that age and those that are still here will either be able to claim or in care.

The equivalent of child benefit ( which most pensioners would also have got ) is the state pension. Not the WFA. Means testing of child benefit was implemented years ago. Pensioners have largely been protected over the last 30 years by successive governments while child benefit and many other services have been cut with hardly a peep.

I like the idea of using council tax bandings for WFA along with pension credits.

I agree that the. WFA should be means tested but think the cut off is too low. It should be set at around £18k pa.

Eh? My dad was born in the 30s - so lived through the war and is still alive and well, as is his sister, my MIL and quite a few neighbours.

Yo really are hauntingly ignorant. Men doing their compulsory national service fought and died in all the shitty little wars that Britain fought to try and shore up its collapsing empire in the 50s (eg Kenya, Aden, Malaya), and some bigger ones like Korea.

I agree. My Dad was born in 1946. He is a baby boomer not wartime.

Not in mumsnet! Money breeds money and we know there’s an awful lot of wealth on here.

It is the boomers but he won't have wanted to say that because of the negative "boomer" implications!

OP YANBU and imo shows a bit of bias in reporting

He's an idiot.

Can't stand the man.

The difficulty of means testing for pensioners is that many will not claim it out of ability to navigate the system (especially if online), awareness or pride.

Cold kills. That's why the payment was created. Elderly people have low muscle mass and often restricted mobility. They have low resistance to feeling cold and are vulnerable to hypothermia. Their housing is less likely to be modern or updated to have optimal insulation or heating systems. Cold, damp houses exacerbate many health conditions such as respiritory problems or arthritis- that will increase the load on the NHS.

The barrier has been shifted too low and many people just eeking by will miss out and suffer for it. Older pensioners often retain the legacy of the "waste not want not" years of rationing in the war/ post-war era and it is common for them to skimp on their needs if they don't feel sufficiently protected by abundance.

Just being brought up by a war child in the 1980s, I have to resist the mentality that I was raised with by actively using things in the moment and not holding back for future circumstances. There was a massive generational trauma experienced by those who were young in the 1930s- early 1950s who lived through the war and its aftermath.