Winter fuel payments

[dearydeary]

I have just heard on the news that this is being discussed again and they are considering reinstating them.

While I think that people who are on a lower income (pension credit for example) may need additional help I do not think this should be a universal benefit any more.

It appears the government is still looking for votes. What about everyone else in society? Younger people at universities or just starting out? Individuals with disabilities?

Surely we need to be moving to a more means tested approach as the finances need rebalancing?

Where pensioner need help, I am happy to support but many older folk have benefited from good pensions, valuable house price increases and a stable employment market. This is not the situation for many of us any more.

Have I lost the plot?

No, I agree.

It needs to be means tested. Every pensioner I know spent it on holidays or vets bills.

I agree.
It needs to be means tested or associated with another benefit/qualification for another benefit (e.g. income/health-related council tax reductions).

Or just added it to their growing bank balance while pleading poverty.

It's a stupid idea to bring it back, because it just makes the Government look weak and desperate.
They had it right when they cut it as a universal benefit, tbh.

My parents are minted and moaned like hell about this going. I transferred the money to them to shut them up and they never said thankyou. Cos they didn't notice it. Agree it needs means testing.

It needs means testing at a higher level than it is now, probably at about £15k-£20k.

It seems it is like a free bus pass, not needed by everyone, but people will take it regardless when those really in need get overlooked.

That needs to be means tested too.

All governments appease older voters - makes sense with. an ageing population. Not great for the youngsters though who are unlikely to even see a state pension

This was supposed to quote @StMarie4me.

I agree OP, and if you'd enabled voting I think you'd see that lots would.

I actually agree with the free bus pass. It is more environmentally friendly and means the busses actually run for younger people too. Take away the pensioners and those on minimum wage might not be able to get to work any more when the services are cancelled.

Well off pensioners don't need a universal benefit. I do think it should have been set at a higher level than pension credit, but no one needs it with a corporate final salary higher rate tax pension.

Don’t bring it back. This country needs to move away from “poor pensioner they fought in the war”. They didn’t, they’re boomers mostly with assets, it’s the working families that need support.

That fire is a bin fire. Do people really think millionaires, or billionaires, need a couple of hundred quid to put the heating on? Do people actually not understand that the concept of makimg sure elderly people have the basic essentials is not about them and their private pensions?

They set the cut off point too low, they just need to raise it so very comfortably off people don't pay it.

Then many would just go down the route of applying for a bus pass because they're struggling to walk, see that well, early onset dementia. Do we really want people on the road who shouldn't be?

Yes I think that was for admin reasons- ie it's easier to just link to pension credit. But I agree, that's what they need to do for fairness, and it's the best move politically too.

Instead of supporting free travel for a select group, many of whom don't need it, services could be more subsidised for all. More working folk would consider it then. Where I live it costs me £9 for a day return to the local town - we need a car anyway due to rural location so I use it because it works out cheaper, but I could get the bus for that particular journey. If it were £5 ish I'd consider it.

Energy could be vastly cheaper for everyone if we were able to ban profits on fossil fuels.

Why should taxpayers subsidise fossil fuel profits by paying unchecked handouts to the richest generation in history ?

Means testing costs more money, which is why I assume that they chose to use the receipt of pension credit as the qualifier for receiving the WFA.

Apparently, the removal of the WFA was the grievance that was raised the most during the campaigning for the recent local elections.

I think that the threashold was set too low, but there is certainly no way that pensioners in the higher tax bracket should ever have been receiving this benefit. However, many people seem to have more sympathy and concern for pensioners than they do for any other demographic, e.g. children living in poverty.

It would have been really easy to stop this for higher rate tax paying pensioners in the first instance and there will be quite a few of them given final salary pensions, plus state pension, plus investments etc. It would have been a step in the right direction and easy to administrate. Capping it at pension credit was a lazy, stupid thing to do, has pissed so many people off and achieved nothing other than a lot more votes for Farage.

We should be means testing much more. The welfare state is supposed to a safety net, not an entitlement because X,Y,Z.

yabnbu

It definitely needs to be means tested. My elderly family member still claimed it even though they are wealthy and didn’t need it. And I agree that if they are entitled to it then yes they should claim it, but they don’t bloody well need it at all