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.

Where do you get that amount from?
State pension is around 1k per month.

My dad is in his 80's, he is,out more often than me, always,having lunch or dinner somewhere

It is

And I know so many working age people who work full time or part time and aren't struggling. They think nothing of getting an Uber, food delivery, eating out, nails, makeup...

State pension is £240 a week

You’re right, my pensioner grandad is stuck in a home lacking any sort of quality of life, but it’s all paid for by his £100k+ pension so he doesn’t need the extra £100 either.

Pensioners are not some infirm, impoverished group that need all possible help. They’re a diverse bunch of people and no more likely to need £100 cash than Sue and Dave with 3 kids under 5 and a part time job.

My mum is a pensioner and has plenty of cash.

I don't think the country can afford to keep throwing money at pensioners.

Doesn’t that include retired couples with up to £35k income each?

No, it isn’t.

This is my job - supporting pensioners to maximise their incomes and claim everything they law entities them to.

Winter Fuel Payment is not means tested.

Unless it’s changed in the past 3 weeks since I’ve been away from work.

it was briefly means tested (those who were claiming pension credit only) back in 2024z

That most of them worked for.

Yes it is. An income of £35k is the cut off

https://www.gov.uk/winter-fuel-payment/if-your-income-is-over-35000

It depends, my mums partner gets WFA because his income is low but he has a large amount of money in investments like ISA's.

Your point is?

Well the earnings threshold for WFA is £35,000. Any individual earning more than that has to pay it back anyway so it seems like a pointless exercise.

They are not in fuel poverty, they are choosing not to spend their substantial means.

And that isn't means testing - that’s absorbing it back via taxes at a later date.

Means testing = an assessment of your income is carried out and on the basis of the findings you either get the payment or you don’t.

The winter fuel payment is not means tested.

Child benefit. That was in answer to giving children the money instead of pensioners.

Read the context of the response.

Fuel poverty is defined as a percentage of income spent on heating etc. So someone can indeed have vast assets be considered in fuel poverty.

It’s means tested for the purpose of the point OP was making, which was that people who get it aren’t well off.

I don’t personally agree, as you can have a household income of £69k and still get it. But her point was fairly obvious without the semantics of what qualifies as means tested.

It's possible for anyone to buy an extra tin something once a week or a packet of paracetamol.etc Tinned foods are cheap You can buy a tin of baked beans for 30p, evaporated milk for 50p, tinned sardines from 50p and Tuna from 60p. Spending an extra 50p a week for a few weeks isn't going to have a huge impact on the household budget.
There is no need to panic. Doomsday isn't coming but surely we should all always have a couple of days food in the house in case of power cuts etc given the unpredictable weather

Well, that’s certainly one way to skew the figures isn’t it.

WFA hasn't gone up since 2000/01. It should be 400 pounds a year.

Who says?

it sure is! All pensioners get it but its clawed back from those who have over a certain amount of income.