To think incompetent hypocrite Starmer has lost the respect of the people and his own party in record time?

[TealTraybake]

An excoriating letter from Rosie Duffield who resigned today..

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rosie-duffield-resignation-letter-starmer-labour-b2620603.html#comments-area

Been bad enough for her to resign, I wonder what will happen next. Does she know something we don’t?

The legislation has already been drafted and it is going forward into the next Finance Bill.

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66a7a1f8a3c2a28abb50d8c1/Private_Schools_Draft_Legislation_-_DIGITAL.pdf

Age U.K. puts it at 2.5m in hardship due to Labour’s policy

@PiggyPokkyFool Because it is fact and because I work in a department that works closely with this area. If you get pension credit GC you’ll get the wfp.
If you have thousands in the bank why on earth should get a few hundred to add to it. 🤷🏼‍♀️ It should go to the poorest. I know pensioners with literally hundreds of thousand in the bank qualifying for the WFP- it’s wrong and it needed to be stopped.

Of course a few will fall short, likely by a few quid which is unfortunate but there has to be a cut off somewhere.

@EasternStandard I'm not defending the policy. I was just saying that there was never any research saying 4,000 excess deaths from means testing to pension credit level.
I personally think means testing it is fine, but the level is far too low.

Obviously the fact that it won't lead to 4,000 excess deaths isn't a defence of it in any way - "not causing thousands of deaths" is an extremely low bar for a policy.

Having a family member helping you with personal care and getting around doesn't affect your entitlement to Attendance Allowance. You aren't obliged to account for how you spend it. It is of course for you to decide whether or not to apply. I do hope your Blue Badge situation is sorted out soon, though. I've never come across such a complex and demeaning application process personally or professionally.

What the Tories did wasn’t good enough for me, I thought they made terrible decisions. Is what I listed above good enough for you? They wasted hundreds of millions of pounds.

Well, you and I agree, I think it could be a means tested payment but I have no idea why a Labour party would choose to draw the bar so low.

Some labour supporters think a pension credit limit is absolutely fine and don't understand how they cannot have a dawning realisation that this won't be a party who cares about the vulnerable at all? Perhaps they wanted a more ruthless Tory party and accurately put their vote behind Starmer and Reeves.?

I wasn't talking about WFA but other benefits pensioners maybe entitled to.

Also, I didn’t vote Labour. I voted to stop the rot.

Thank you. Tomorrow I'll chase up GP for those reports.

Some labour supporters think a pension credit limit is absolutely fine

Vanishing few. There seems to be a widespread feeling that the threshold should be the same as the personal allowance for income tax.

Yes that and more, I expect. An old article but gives us an idea of the Labour nepotism she may be referring to.

https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2023/05/celebrating-labour-party-nepo-babies

The cut off as you'll well know by a few pounds is those who have worked to collect their full stamps and are eligible for the full state pension. Those who didn't get their stamps are better off as they'll qualify for PC which is grim. I do agree there has to be a cut off and some will lose out, but this is a very purposeful cut off that doesn't just affect those with savings or assets by a long shot. They should raise eligibility to those on state pension even if that's the line.

Thank you. I'll get blue badge sorted first.

Welsh forms and covering letters are generally terse bordering on rude. A family member who works for a housing association says she sees all of them and some of her tenants are very upset by it.

Those of you saying he's not real Labour - he must be to be messing with private education so terribly? Surely?

They're hardly vanishing. There are a fair few shoulder shruggers here. I'm quite worried about what fresh hell will land on the shoulders of the poorest in society now they have demonstrated this ruthless streak.

l understand how DWP funding works - the £23bn in unclaimed benefits are not all pensioner benefits, they’re across the board. But I’m talking about the consequences of a very poor decision, which will likely increase overall spending on benefits as those pensioners who previously received universal WFP are forced to make new claims for pension credit for the first time.

It’s obvious the rush to introduce the cut so far in advance of the budget was so that the qualifying week for WFP according to personal circumstances (16-22 September for 2024) could be amended to include receipt of pension credit, so that may offset some of the cost, as many pensioners likely won’t have applied for the benefit in time to qualify.

I think we're supposed to shuffle off now we are no longer contributing to society financially. Covid didn't kill enough of us.

You can’t strike

Other groups who can’t use that should be wary

Pretty much.

That’s why I can’t oppose the WFA cut. I do strongly oppose Labour’s dishonesty about it though.

I hope Wes Streeting lives up to his rhetoric about the NHS (and his appointment of Alan Milburn). It must be seriously improved without more money. Otherwise we’ll disappear into a genuine economic black hole.

Care costs is another massive problem someone will have to deal with.

But then, who knows, maybe reversing union laws, playing around with the working week and WFH and punitively taxing the very wealthy will bring us so much growth that we’ll be ok.

Has anyone else noticed that not just in Britain but across Europe and indeed the entire Western world, the current crop of 'leaders' are a sorry bunch? I'm not talking about specific policies or political leanings. They all just seem like bland, soulless bureaucrats with no vision and no original thoughts. Not a single statesman or woman among them.

I can't imagine what will happen. Families are so fragmented and financially stretched that filling in the gaps for the vulnerable by retreating state support isn't an option.

Putting one of the most physically vulnerable groups, the elderly, in further financial hardship - isn't going to lead to the health outcomes that are going to lift an over burdened health service at the most over burdened time of the year.

Yes.

https://news.sky.com/story/amp/you-can-shout-but-they-dont-listen-inside-the-simmering-anger-after-the-riots-13216570

@IcedPurple

I think it's because the left has made things so toxic. If you don't 100% conform to their ideology, you and your loved ones are labelled as 'evil' and deserving of harassment and possibly violence.

Nobody is allowed to simply disagree on the best way to build an economy that provides for everybody. There is zero acknowledgement that people on the right agree on the destination, but just disagree on the best way to achieve it.

It’s not a poor decision because you says it’s a poor decision. Plenty of people think it’s a very sensible decision. Unless you’ve got that crystal ball handy, then postulating over dire consequences is just scaremongering – but that’s MN for you.

If you really think Labour do not know that benefit claims will increase, that’s completely ludicrous.