WINTER FUEL PAYMENT

[cobden28]

A couple of days ago I received the official letter from the DWP telling me I'm not going to receive the Winter Fuel payment this year because, although I am within the required age group, I'm not in receipt of the listed benefits. I am 69 years of age.
On the same day I also received notifiication from my energy supplier of the amount of my next Direct Debit monthly payment and a request to submit my meter readings. I've contacted the energy supplier and arranged for them to send round a meter reader, so they can't be in a position to dispute the readings oobtained.
Then once I get my billing sorted i'm going to have to work out how to cut my energy bill. My proposed method is to turn off the central heating and only use the gas fire in the living room for heating - I feel uncomfortable if a room is too warm and the gas fire chucks out lots of heat anyway.

My partner and got separate letters!

Excellent point

So you've had help towards your energy bills, plus you have been able to put aside money to pay the bills, yet you are on here whining that you've been "robbed"?!! The fucking entitlement. This has to be a joke.

It's hard to know whether you should be turning your heating off without knowing your income. Your health is important so I wouldn't risk an illness that can be caught from a cold house. My elderly DM finds it cheaper to keep her heating on during the winter and set the thermostat to a set temperature, she turns the radiators off or down really low for rooms she doesn't use. She has quite a high credit with her energy company as pays the same amount during the summer months so this helps offset any extra use during the winter months.

Especially as my df had already received the letter telling him how much he would get, which he won't now.
And as he's over 90 it was going to be £600.

I was told that running a gas fire is the same cost as running a boiler but not sure if it's actually true.
My grandparents never had central heating, only used a gas fire and lived to their 90s, (they weren't poor but he was very tight).
And I am a pensioner who doesn't need WFA but I do think they should have used tax records to protect those who will struggle. .

In the 70's my dh's gps only had a fire in the living room.
It was on all day and stifling.

After all the WASPI whinging that ‘we didn’t knooooowwww’ (despite extensive media coverage) I guess they couldn’t take any risks.

The pair of you, honestly. The OP probably doesn't even know that board exists.

@cobden28 How expensive is your Gas Heater to run? Do you prefer your other rooms heated a bit, will it do that if you open the doors to the other rooms?

Do you tend to sit in one room of an evening or move about the house?

If you sit in one room & are fine with the other rooms not being heated, heated throws are very very cheap to run (a couple of pence an hour) and are lovely & cosy.

when I first moved in here it didn't have central heating & I bought an oil filled radiator. I'd close the lounge doors & it would warm up nicely. Then I'd open the lounge door & it would take the chill off the other rooms. It worked fine if I was home from work early enough, but I hated coming home later to a cold house.
i hope you can find a solution that's cheaper but also is comfortable to live with

Also struggling to understand the point of this thread.

Just keep the heating on, and keep it at a lower temperature... No-one needs it over 20 degrees C, as some people have it (and then whine about £300 a month heating bills!) Keep it on 17-18 C, and make sure the doors are all ajar in your house so the heat/warmth can circulate.

Always worked for me and DH. Small 2-bed detached 1930s cottage. £600 a year gas bill. We're never cold. (12 year old heating system/boiler.)

Nobody has been robbed.
They've just decided to give it only to those who need it, based on whether or not their income is low enough.

Isn’t this just the sort of sensible thinking anyone employs? We’ve never heated the entire house just because we can, why on earth would we?

If you were a frail 90-year-old then it might garner more sympathy - but 69, whilst of pension age, isn’t blanket over the knees dotage territory.

My mum had the same letter OP.

But unfortunately there is little point of starting a thread on Mumsnet about this as most poster are under the impression that all pensioners have money to spare and are just moaning for the sake of it. You would probably have more help/understanding from Gransnet.

The vast majority of pensioners can afford to effectively heat themselves, when they are claiming everything they should. But I don't think Labour are necessarily able to effectively identity all of those in true fuel poverty. The energy companies could probably do more here.

I'm severely disabled.
( got thrown under a bus by an ex) he got jailed for attempted murder
I was in a coma for 6 months.
So no l don't work.
30 years later l still see a psychiatrists every week.
I would have given the £300 to someone in need. ( Yes l was actually having a go at Stammer).
I don't need it.. nor will l be claiming my pension.
Nor do l claim any disability benefits. I did for a few years after until l got my compensation.
I also pay for my psychiatrists.
I do use the NHS for operations and other things l still need.. but l donate to my local hospital and hospice.
Think before you speak.

No one has robbed you. You seem to have enough money to save and have also received a handout.

This thread is another bot party political broadcast for the Conservative and a Union party

Ridiculous. You're criticising the government for not giving you something you (and the vast majority of people) don't need. Laughable.

Oh, it’s you again. Weren’t you pulled up on your last thread on the same subject for having a posting history which didn’t quite add up to your story?

I may sound unsympathetic, but I do begrudge pensioners whinging about losing £300, knowing they retired at 60 and will have had 7 years worth of pension more than I will ever get (£££) as I cant retire until I am 67

Your first point about the gas fire was correct in our experience. We moved into a house with only a gas fire and it cost as much to heat just the living room as it did to heat the whole house properly from the next winter onwards after we'd had GCH installed.

So a word of caution to the OP that this might not necessarily be money saving.

However, you should first check that you're getting all the benefits you're entitled to and also talk to your energy supplier if your budget looks tight with the loss of the winter fuel allowance.

I got this today. Block and report as scam.

Presumably they're required to notify everyone so I doubt they've much choice in the matter but, it might be fun to try and work it out.

There's about 7.8m people affected by the cut.

To send each a letter you'd need:

7.8m stamps (1st class at £1.35)
envelopes
7.8m envelopes (pack of 5000 for £125)
15,600 packs of 500 sheets of A4 paper (around £9 a pack on average)
3,200 ink cartridges (around £24 on average).

So, (7.8m x £1.35) + (1560 × £125) + (15,600 x £9) + (3,200 x £24) = £10,942,200 for materials.

Then you'd need to print and send them.

It takes about 0.05kWh to print an A4 letter so and average kWh costs 22.36p so:

7.8m × 0.05kWh = 390,000kWh x £0.2236 = £87,204 in electricity.

And let's say staff are paid on average £13 p/h and can process 30 letters and hour:

7.8m ÷ 30 = 260,000 hours x £13 p/h = £3,380,000 in staff costs.

That makes the total somewhere in the region of £14,409,404.

Now obviously that's based on an assumption that the government are pay average consumer prices for materials and electricity, which is unlikely, but then I've probably forgot to factor in some hidden costs so it should balance out.

So a one-off cost of £14.5m to carry out their responsibilities in terms of notifying people in order to save, according to the government anyway, £1.5bn.

Should also say maths is not my strong point so there's a good chance I've made a pig's ear of something in the above.

This, while a 35 year old head of department in my local school pays £1250 a month rent because he can’t afford to buy a house. House prices are about 7 times his salary.

For every boomer sat, mortgage free, in a house there’s a young person who has a student loan paying through the nose for rent.

We can all play to a trope.

Are you not entitled to pension credit, OP?
How much will your pension increase this year? Can you use that to pay for your heating bills?

I would have given the £300 to someone in need

why should the government give you money for you to donate to charity or a friend in need?
Give your own money