An extra hubdred for OAPS?

[RaggedRocks]

The government wants us to keep cash at home for emergencies. Many pensioners are struggling to pay their bills and don't have a spare 100 quid.

AIBU to think that they should add an extra hundred onto the WFA in the budget, so oldies can have some spare cash to keep for the coming emergency. Also consider an extra hundred for UC recipients.

Meanies

Just imagining all the wrinkles in Spoons doing £100 worth of shots.

And if they are a couple thats £35k EACH. A household income of £70k with no childcare costs and probably no housing costs is frankly rolling in it!!
No. No more money being sent to pensioners who are already better off than most of the population.

Loads of other people can't afford those things either. Anyone who's managed to get to pension age without putting anything by for their retirement is hardly going to save a bonus £100 for emergencies.

YABU

There are many people much worse off than pensioners. Certainly for the moment, gone are the days when pensioners or “old folk” were the worst off section of society.

Stop the narrative that EVERYONE over pension age is struggling. It simply isn’t true.

I know SO many working age people who work full time but are really struggling, and lots of pensioners who have multiple pensions, savings, assets.

Just because they are old doesn’t mean they deserve more than everyone else.

Places my pensioner parents have had a night out this year:

their house (hosting a party)
many of their friends houses (most weeks)
their local high street
their closest city
Bali
Benidorm (albeit that was a stag for my dad)
Majorca
Ibiza
Las Vegas

They’re big party people and weirdly didn’t stop partying the day they turned 67.

Brilliant, it's good that some folks are having the time of their lives, but not all are.

Also pensioners are likely to be first on the list for any emergency help that's available.

The whole point of this guidance is to put those who are able in a place to take care of themselves for a few days, while the national effort is directed towards infrastructure and the most vulnerable.

I can’t be the only person thinking that when I’m retired, have all the time in the world for socialising as the kids have left home, I can finally start partying!

Are you serious?? Most theatres and cultural live events are full of OAPs, fancy restaurants too. They might not be in the same financial demographic as you, but the arts keeps going on the grey pound, don't kid yourself it's younger folk who can afford to pay for pricey theatre tickets etc.

All the OAPs i know are significantly better off than me, and im doing OK.

Huh, I earn over £30000 and after my rent and paying for my dependants I have far far less than £240 per week left over….

Most pensioners in full state pension are better off than your average working person.

What's that supposed to mean? My neighbours (both around 80 and one of them can't walk very well) have a far far better social life than I have!

Silly idea, you would just dip into the money if you needed to top up the electric or buy some bread and it would never get replaced. The money would be better spent stocking community hubs.

But your initial post suggests that all pensioners should receive an extra £100. That's where it's inequitable. Yes there are some pensioners living in poverty or only receiving state pension but there are also some pensioners who are very comfortable and some who are far wealthier than you or I ever will be.

Over 8 million people receive UC so even if your suggestion is just for UC, that's £830,000,000 going out in one go.

Just state pensioners would be over a billion quid.

Sadly, I think people who are struggling won't put that £100 away for a rainy day and it'll go straight back out onto bills and essentials.

When the energy bills first zoomed up a few years ago, the payments made from government didn't touch the sides and didn't come anywhere near closing the gap on what we could afford and what we'd budgeted for that essential bill.

I appreciate that you're trying to be helpful and look at who needs support the most.

Right. So why do 110,000 pensioners die in fuel poverty every year in the UK?
Younger people have the option to work, the elderly do not. Of course we should be helping the poorest.

On top of the £1500 minimum they already get?

My aunty and grandma are in 'fuel poverty' but they have around 200k in the bank. They sit freezing cold all winter.

Every cash machine I've been to in the past week has been Out of Service 🤷‍♂️

Dying in fuel poverty is not the same as dying because of fuel poverty. And 1 in 5 who dies in fuel poverty is not a pensioner.

I think the point is to have some access to cash for emergencies i.e. if digital payment systems go down. So if you budget for the week have that budget available in cash?

Ditto the £12k+ that pensioners already get.

I meant this thread light-heartedly, a sort of opposition to yesterday's thread suggesting that old people give up their homes and go and live together in an HMO.

This.
I'm retired, most of the pensioners I know are quite wealthy and use the winter fuel allowance for champagne at Christmas.
The few poorer ones that I know, are poor because they wasted it on fast living.

My sympathies are with the young.