To say the £35k winter fuel threshold is way too high!

[chocolateismyweakness4]

The threshold needed to be raised, but £35k?! I wish I earned that and I have a mortgage and commuting costs. It also doesn’t take into account savings (so they could have millions in the bank) or household income.

We all know it’s a bribe, but they still won’t get pensioners to vote for them.

This is ridiculous, they have just back pedalled because they are scared of losing the pensioner vote and there was a lot of negative press around it.
Doesn't make it the right thing to do.
The cap was too low before but now it's gone too far the other way.
No way does a pensioner couple, with almost certainly with no dependents and much less likely to be paying mortgage and rent with a joint income of up to 70k and unlimited savings need the winter fuel allowance.
Or a single pensioner with an income up to 35k and unspecified savings.
I'm a labour voter but I think they losing creditability.
I'm in my early 50s and can only dream of my pensions totalling 35k and I'm going to have to wait so much longer to get them too

But that's why the protection of pensioners annoys me, because I think they are more protected than those with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. Aren't you annoyed you lost the warm home allowance but an able bodied 70 year old on 34k a year will get a heating allowance?

Also, only a small percentage of current pensioners fought in wars, as you would need to be 94 or older to have fought in ww2.

Using the existence of food banks as an example of things being better today really is scraping the barrel I’m afraid.

And using the bus is bloody expensive. They’re rarely empty where I am though, but they’re mainly used by pensioners with free bus passes (which I agree with as many elderly people should be using busses and no longer driving). But if the cost to use busses was more reasonable maybe younger people would use them too.

The only good thing might be it'll be less complicated to administer than any other means testing nonsense they might think up.

£35k!

Clearly it wasn't impossible back then because far more people managed to buy a home at a much younger age, usually without parental help, certainly not large gifts of £.
Your parents were fortunate to have had free University for their children and relatively low accommodation costs. Grants were also available for those on lower incomes. What you state that your mother did is standard now as most families have two earners. Have you seen the amount that most parents are required to contribute now?
At least you appear to agree that your technology argument is a nonsensical one.
No one is suggesting that all older people had an easy life, far from it, but financially, things are undoubtedly much harder for younger generations than they were for the boomer generation overall.

Forgive my ignorance in these matters, but is it taxable as part of overall income?

If not, maybe it should be, then those who need it most would most likely be under the tax threshold and get all of it, those above the tax threshold would pay tax on it. Yes they would get something, but at least some of it would be clawed back. The exceptionally well off with large pensions would pay at the higher rate.

Maybe I'm talking through my hat though. Someone will tell me I'm sure!

A lot of boomers aren't that well off. If my parents were still alive they'd qualify despite working for the NHS and the Civil Service.

There's this preconception that all boomers are raking it in which just isn't true.

You can fuck right off with that comment. My dh and I are pensioners and we get just over £24000 pa. We still pay rent and council tax. We downsized to a park home because we stll had a mortgage we couldn't afford to keep paying due to ill health.
We had planned our retirement but circumstances beyond our control eg: I'll health changed things drastically.
We are not greedy boomers we would just like a decent standard if living after working over 90 years between us.
If you could stop generalising I'd be grateful.

Rumbled! me and my spiteful old and selfish boomer mates WhatsApped Rachel Reeves over the weeked and told her we would wait for her round the back of the HoC and beat her up unless she gave us money to heat our million pound mansions.

Most boomer parents could afford to feed their children. Let's not pretend otherwise. Certainly life was far simpler then as many of life's complications did not exist back then. How fortunate they were to grow up and raise a family in less complicated times!

It didn’t become compulsory for all employers to pay into private pensions till 2018.
So, doing the maths, the first pensioners affected won’t have had the privilege of a decent pension ( or one at all ) till the late 2060s.

When that comes around it will be worth looking at where Government support for pensioners lies.
Until then it’s wrong to say they didn’t prepare for their pension years ago when people of today have more rights and money paid in by employers than really not that long ago.

I know. Some people will find absolutely anything to complain about. We were deprived because we didn't have access to food banks is pretty low.

I will get it and so I should,worked bloody hard all my life.So fed up of young people whinging on about how much income pensioners have.Most I know barely manage.

Bus fares are so cheap, if we’re going to compare it to trains and car ownership. The young though would look at you with disbelief if you suggested a bus ride somewhere. Uber is king in the absence of a car. Taxis were only used by the rich in the so called ‘boomer’ times, but are now the norm for many people.

It's more than I earn, and I have to pay rent, commuting expenses etc, prescription fees etc so literally NOTHING left at the end of the month. I'll be well and truly fucked when I retire as I can't afford private pension provision, won't be getting an inheritance and the state pension will probably not exist. I try not to think about it, but this has really fucking pissed me off.

I'm delighted with the news - now I just need my WASPI compensation and I will be able to buy a better fitting diamond shoe.

Clearly you haven’t read my post in context, which was someone commenting about there being no need for food banks 40 years ago. I said there definitely was a need. Just because they didn’t exist, doesn’t mean they weren’t needed.

The buses where I am are not cheap and would take me double the time compared to the train or car. It’s also not practical for many to get buses to work.

Yes this is obviously a ridiculously high limit, to think that two people on 34k each would get the full entitlement even though they likely have no housing costs and many will have more than 1m in assets (27% of pensioners). If one of you earns 1m a year and one earns 34k then you still get it for that second person.

We have one bus an HOUR and no Sunday service. So ppl working in retail outlets on a Sunday are basically working to pay their taxi fares there and back. Even worse on Boxing Day Total piss take

Better start saving then!

You sound similar to me, I too am a selfish greedy grasping pensioner living in a two up two down in a horrible area (just been shopping and seen a fight between two street drinkers, a drug deal go on broad daylight, nearly been flattened by 3 drivers jumping the red lights and been approached by two beggars and counted 7 fly tips so not living it up on millionaires row) I pay income tax, council tax, VAT on new purchases and water rates. The only thing I do not pay is NI but I did pay that for approx 45 years so I do feel that I contributed to and continue to contribute to society. Some people are selfish, it is not an age specific thing and I have said in numerous threads on this topic that I think younger people are getting a very raw deal and that we have a housing crisis due to greed and the way property is seen as an investment rather than houses being homes for peple to live their lives in

Maybe because they had to afford. Lots of chips fried in lard, which were had with every daily meal. Because it was cheap. Feeding chips to today’s kids, every day, would be classed as child neglect. Healthy eating should be classed as a need and not a luxury btw, but just pointing out that there was no focus on healthy eating back then as there is now.

This is my gripe too. Children and young people are constantly shit on in every aspect in favour of pensioners

Kids rotting in damp high rises because the council can’t force Doris, 86, out of her 4 bed home.
It is an absolute farce

Have you ever wondered why you only have one bus an hour? Guessing due to lack of demand. Bus companies are running a business too, and I’m sure can’t afford to have three out of four buses running empty every hour.