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.

According to Age UK, 2.1 million pensioners are living in poverty. One of the groups in this category is single women.

Pensioners have extra costs, because they tend to live in cold, poorly insulated homes, and feel the cold more. They don’t usually go to work, so they are at home all day. They are more likely to be disabled and have extra costs, because of that like extra food, laundry, needing to get tradesmen in for services, getting to medical appointments, etc.

Not all pensioners can get online to claim pension credits. My MIL didn’t know to claim it, until her DC got POA and claimed it for her. She just lived on the state pension for over 20 years and struggled.

Do you think you could live just on the state pension, seeing as you are complaining while earning more?

It’s linked to your married or cp income yes?

The WFA going by below is not.

They should have done the same.

Of course it is. Who said it wasn't? I said that there were no food banks 40 years ago but that that doesn't mean they weren't needed. People just got help via other means.

Pensioners in this country deserve so much more. They have worked dam hard over the years. Uk pensioners recieve one of the lowest pensions in the world. People do not realise, if they are lucky enough, we will all become pensioners one day. The UK see pensioners as a drain and should be treated as such. It's disgusting...

One of the lowest in the world? Really?

Perhaps you mean the developed world. I doubt the UK pensions are lower than those in the third world.

And may other countries do their pensions differently, paying higher taxes and not having separate private pensions.

If things were truly much better today food banks wouldn’t be needed at all!

My MIL worked five years her whole life and then after raising two DC never returned. Like many women of her generation.
We can’t afford sentiment sadly if we all want modern medicine to keep us alive until 101.

It should be paid for by imposing NIC on pensions and other income such as interest and property letting! There'll be a riot if Rachel even thinks of increasing tax on workers!

I did and like I said it’s not perfect but the thread is about benefits and as an aside attitudes to other generations com8ng up on this thread.
ie the relevant part

Maybe the welfare state will one day radically change but every party is too scared to. How about a model like some other countries where your
Welfare is directly linked to how much tax or contributions you have made?

@DemonsandMosquitoes That would get rid of all sentimentally. In some countries unemployment is paid at a percentage of what you have been paid whilst in employment.

I think the country will limp on with its poorly administered welfare state, not tackling immigration and other issues and at some point the genuine extreme right will rise and Reform and Trump will seem like soft touches. That is a petrifying thought.

If you impose NI on interest on investments and property letting there would be an impact on working people too. You think there wouldn’t be riot if this was done? It’s your favourite hobby horse but you just haven’t thought it through.

Someone who earned 35k whilst working, wont get that as a pension. I currently earn 47k a year, my pension is going to be 12k. I dont earn enough to save £1000s or get a private pension. Problem is when you earn 47k a year, you end up paying a lot of tax and NI. So you dont end up taking as much home as you think. In actual fact my friend whose yearly income is less than mine, has a larger monthly income due to her paying less tax.
You also have to pay for everything in full when you earn a "good" wage, dental care, optician, school uniforms etc, so you dont have money to save. So many people on that wage, arent as well off as you think.

I fear the welfare state as we know it will all come crashing down one day, it’s a question of if not when. It’s not sustainable.

Remember you'll be a pensioner one day and you'll be very glad then for all we fight for!!
Once you receive your pension, there's not much left of your life so best we can enjoy it to our best.....

Boomers most certainly didn't have it easy! Many were born when food was still rationed and their parents were still feeling the effects of WWII. I was born in 1959. Our house was tied to DF's occupation. It was bitterly cold during the winter and I got chilblains every year. We had very little money. I had to dry my hair in front of the gas fire as we didn't have a hair dryer. My friend lived just outside the village. Her home had no bathroom or toilet. If you wanted a wee, you used a bucket; anything else and you went down the garden to a tiny shed which obviously stunk to high heaven. I could on, but then the post would be ridiculously long. Even if we could afford houses as we got older, we certainly couldn't afford anything else!

If I’m lucky I’ll be a pensioner one day! The age is currently 68 and we all know it will go up further. Pensioners today don’t care about that though as it won’t affect them.

OK, scrap NIC and increase income tax instead. That way everyone pays the same tax on the same income.

I don’t blame younger people for looking at this cut off and policy and thinking bloody hell.

You're correct. Neither the welfare state nor the NHS will survive much longer. We can't have more and more people taking out and fewer putting in. We have far too many "economically inactive" people and that has to change.

I do think NI should just be rolled into general tax. It’s complicated as it is and gives the illusion there’s a ‘pot’ of money waiting for you at the end.

You’d still have riots.

Well tax rises (or benefit reductions) are inevitable, so who do YOU think should bear the burden of them? Workers are already shafted in several ways. So you have to look at sections of society who are paying less in tax on similar levels of income, which are pensioners, buy to let investors, etc.

It’s not a case of ‘others don’t deserve’. The focus is on older people keeping warm so they don’t become ill and end up in hospital which can easily happen. Keeping them out of hospital saves so much money so the fuel allowance is actually cost effective.

A more positive attitude to life may enable you be a pensioner a lot easier.... Negative thoughts can affect your health. Being a poorly pensioner is certainly no fun, money or not.
Silly to say pensioners don't care, most have children and dread how they're going to manage having to work to late 60's plus 😢