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.

Meanwhile everyone else knows that's an utterly ignorant view.

Muskisacnt The point is with Boomers ,They are not all wealthy!Plenty of them having to move down or take out equity release.Some still rent.When they left School, it was less common for WC children to go on to further education.Many had to leave School, to go to work to support their families.It was also less likely for women to earn well ,or indeed work even PT.Less Nurseries ,and frowned upon .£200.00 pm seems a lot.But pensions are also taxed ,and many older people struggle with their health and are reluctant turn on the heating as well.

Possibly because when you're elderly you feel the cold more and are not able to move about so much, plus cannot work.

So they don't die? The elderly are far more likely to die in the cold.

Can't wait for some of these posters to get old and see what a blessing it is (not).

Free travel at 60 in Scotland. No idea why.

The free bus travel for under 22s makes perfect sense, though.

This is actually a smart move by Reeves. I'm not an economist so happy to be wrong on this one.

The economy needs to grow, which means it needs a cash injection. This is a small way of doing that. For those that don't need it, they will spend the money instead which will go round the economy multiple times through VAT > Company Tax > Income tax/NI on employees etc. Shrinking the welfare state has the opposite effect, of course.

The other thing to bear in mind is that we are a 2.5 Trillion pound economy. This will be a drop in the ocean at £1.2bn

the income is before tax though I think, so they won't see 3000 a month?

As a pp has said, it can't be both terrible to take away and so little money that it makes no difference to anyone.

Having had cancer at 51, getting to my 60s is an absolute blessing.

What a thoughtless thing to say.

The £35k is before tax
Anyone renting will be paying rent

It's not £200 a month it's a single one off payment of £200. A pretty insignificant amount considering how high bills are these days.

Exactly.
This is also a sticking plaster approach instead of actually tackling rising energy costs.

But they are just going about it in such a cack-handed manner! Previously it was clearly too low. This is clearly too high. It’s not hard fgs! I’m a Labour voter and thought Rachel Reeves would be good but she’s totally clueless.

Surely there should be efforts to bring bills down for everyone and then these payments won’t be needed anyway.

It does for those of pension age. Most pensioners cannot claim UC.

It's not venom though.

It is £35k taxable income, so that means all basic rate tax payers will be eligible. This level means that the previous situation where Lord Sugar etc. etc. were entitled has been brought to an end. This seems fair, especially as this forum is stuffed full of people who complain that an income of £100k isn't enough to live on.

It'll be your turn next then.

Eh?

Should all workers earning less than £35k be getting the winter fuel allowance too then?

Income of £16k and not struggling 😂

Is there any chance you conveniently forgot to include £40k worth of housing/rent/council tax/PIP/school meals/prescriptions/dental care/tax credits/funded childcare/nursery fees and other state benefits and probably plenty of other things that I have no idea about

A lot of disabled people, me included, are in the same boat. We don’t get a Winter Fuel Allowance, and I bet they don’t u-turn on the PIP changes either.

You know that not all pensioners are rent/mortgage free, right?

Actually, I think you've hit the nail on the head here.

We are all on here arguing over scraps. The reality is, the super-rich have brought up all the worlds resources and are now selling them back to us for 20 x what they paid for it.