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.

It should be minimum wage or living wage. Very few pensioners get than on an annual basis. Most I know get minimum and are using savings to help.

But if you have millions in the bank, which the vast majority of people are unlikely to have, then you would be earning a lot of interest, which will increase your annual income significantly and probably take you over the £35,000 threshold.

Yes.

If that was my income and I didn’t have a mortgage or expensive kids I’d be LOADED! £35k a year is way more than anyone my age with a DC is going to have when we retire!

You only get one payment per household though. If one person is a pensioner they get the full amount if two are they get half each. That is how it has always been.

I don’t think interest from savings counts as income is it ? Your savings are taxed though, of course.

I doubt it’s the greedy boomers making the decisions! Most boomers are not greedy. Drip the ageist language too.

Lots of pensioners still pay rent these days

My parents will get it, they spend the Winter in Portugal. They absolutely do not need and will admit they don’t need it, too.

The country could spend the £1bn+ this is costing in far better ways.

I think it’s per household, as before, we were eligible for the £300, my husband being over 80, as he was given 200, and I was given 100

But many will be receiving housing benefit if they are on a low income.

Rachel Reeves made this decision not the boomers. Blame her.

Of course it counts as income. You have to declare interest on your tax return each year. I think you’re allowed to get £1000 in interest as your personal savings allowance but you pay tax on anything above that and it’s classed as part of your income.

Ha ha ha

of course it is income.

I absolutely agree with u. I know they need to put some rules in place but if it doesn’t take account of savings then it’s even more ridiculous. I know of a few that age group who don’t have income of £35k a year but do have 6 figures in the bank. They don’t need it.

I know plenty of ppl that earn way below £35k and have a family to raise and mortgage etc to pay. £35k is too high as the threshold.

Millions of Boomers are not pensioners. Millions of pensioners are not Boomers.

But if you’re paye you don’t do a tax return!

The total amount payable is per household but if one person is eligible (as in my house) it's only their income taken into account. If both are eligible they only get £300 between them.

You can't claim universal credit as a pensioner and the threshold for pension credit is very very low, in fact so low people complained about it being used at the threshold for winter fuel allowance. This limit is supposed to address that gap

I've no skin in this game I'm not a pensioner.

Maybe some of the greedy boomers feel they’re being shafted by the younger generations who get free childcare, which is something that was never available to them when they were having babies.

But if it’s in ISAs it’s not taxable. Some max out the £20k allowance every year and have thousands in ISAs.

If you are getting interest on savings that is taxable I would have thought that is included, although it's not very clear. My pensions were only £21,000 gross last year (some of that taxable) so I suppose I might be eligible, but I do have savings and some savings income to fall back on which makes it liveable. And really a couple of hundred is a drop in the ocean in terms of bills although very welcome if it happens.

Housing benefit is different to universal credit.

Well the evidence seems to suggest they had good reason to be scared, doesn't it?

This whole debacle makes me really worried about what the future looks like given our shifting demographics. If a political party with Labour's majority can't make even the tiny adjustment to the beneficial treatment of older voters this represented then I just don't understand how the economy will function. No one wants to accept the reality of what fewer and fewer working age people providing for more and more retired people looks like.